Buying things you love which are made from recycled materials makes you cherish them twice as much. Here is a list of picks to get you started:
- It is easy to get lost on Etsy going through all of the great hand-made things but especially the goodies made from reconstructed or reused items.
- These glasses made from recycled bottles by Green Glass are beautiful. They make you want to invite your friends over for a cocktail.
- Remember those chains and bracelets we used to weave from gum wrappers in grade-school? Bazura is making and selling bags that mirror that look out of recycled juice and drink boxes. Not only do they keep up to 50,000 pieces of trash out of the landfill per day, the company is supplied by a co-op relationship which pays school children in the Phillipines in exchange for collecting the boxes. And local women sanitize and sew the bags. The women actually have a stake in the operation so they are eco-preneurs as well. Ecological, fair-trade and fashionable, what more could you ask for in a purse? Even Amazon is getting in on the action. Anybody got a straw?
- There are a ton of bags out there. These are made from repurposed vinyl billboards. That is huge. No, really, those blown up images look sleek and modern sewn into a bag.
Previously owned goods can make a difference as well. Why buy something new when someone might be giving it away? Reusing doesn’t have to cost you. Whoever thought of Freecycle was a genius. The concept is that you get on a Freecycle email list with people in your neighborhood and when someone is getting rid of their couch, instead of letting it go to the dump on heavy trash day, they send out an alert and you can go pick it up. People offer up everything from canned vegetables to perfectly new sunglasses. Need some baby food jars for that art project? Email the list and you’ll be picking them up in a few hours. They may not be new but they’ll be new to you! For the price of on the house.