Recycling, Home-made Décor and Saving Environment- A Perfect Combo

By Ruchi Sharma

We read daily about how we all should contribute towards saving the environment and mostly the best thing we decide to do is avoid using plastic or plant a tree! Every year almost 8 tonnes of plastic waste is dumped into the oceans all over the world according to United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). That’s why we totally agree that you MUST avoid plastic and not only plant trees but also take care of them! But what if this World Environment Day we bring a new twist in the tale? Take a look around, we are sure you will find many things you plan to chuck in the dustbin next time you clean your room. And that’s where our idea comes into picture. Let’s gather all those old CDs, plastic cold-drink bottles, old toothbrushes, plastic food containers  etc. and bring out our creative genius. Time to recycle them and get beautiful home-made décor, something that none of your friends will ever imagine what it was made from!

1. Plastic Cold-drink bottles

What do you do with those 600 ml PET cold drink bottles after drinking the cold drink? Now you must be thinking we are mad to ask this question for the answer is obvious that you throw them! But what if we tell you that these plastic bottles can be used to create beautiful crafts at home itself! You can make wall hangings, bird feeders or even piggy banks! And leave aside crafts, we found this awesome video for you where you can reuse this ‘waste’ transforming it into a beautiful hanging garden! That serves dual purpose, you recycle plastic and that too for planting herbs or little plants! Don’t believe us? Catch this video-

2. Old CDs or DVDs

When you do your quarterly or yearly study room cleaning, you find that carton full of junk CDs and DVDs that are a waste. They can’t be used and have little to no reason for finding a place in your home any longer. But these CDs and DVDs can actually become beautiful home décor like wall hangings or something even more creative. If you are a little confident that you can carefully handle cutting the CDs in various shapes without injuring yourself, you can make infinite number of decors or paintings. The easiest thing you can make from them is a wall hanging. We got this unique DIY for you where you can make your own beautiful CD wall hanging craft!

Materials Needed
2 Old CDs
Toothpicks
Silver Lace
Decorative Beads Lace
2 Different Coloured Decorative Stones
Flowers Tussle
Scissors
Fevicol

Image Credit- Instructables

Steps

1. Place a decorative stone at the centre of the CD and surround it with decorative beads lace.

2. Glue the back end of the toothpicks to the circle made from the beads lace, form a sun pattern with the toothpicks.

3. Now decorate another CD in similar manner.

4. Use the beads to decorate the CD and cover the toothpick ends that are glued to the lace.

5. Join the two CDs with ribbon so that you have a hanging area on the top.

6. Attach the flowers tussle to the bottom of this decorative piece.

Your wall Hanging is ready to shine and make any corner of your room pop up!

3. Old Toothbrush

Now this one is too far-fetched, right? At max, you might use those old toothbrushes for cleaning some random stuff before chucking them in a dustbin. But wait, those toothbrushes can be transformed into a unique hanging which no one will be able to ever guess that it was actually originally made from a toothbrush! We found this awesome video for you where you can learn how to revamp your toothbrushes into a unique colourful hanging!

4. Plastic food containers

All that after cleanup after enjoying that scrumptious food delivery involves throwing away the take-away food containers and then going off for a walk to digest the food! But just don’t throw them yet. In fact, if you are a little tech savvy and have access to fancy craft products like glue gun, the possibilities to make some really fancy items with these are infinite. But we found a really unique super easy craft that can actually make that junk totally usable and at the same time you chip in your efforts by not adding that plastic waste to the environment.

For making this flower basket you will require-
Plastic bowl (atleast 1000 ml size)
Jute rope
Cardboard
Glue

Image Credit: Pinterest

Steps

1. Start gluing the jute rope from top to bottom systematically without leaving space in between.

2. Cut a 3-4 cm wide strip of cardboard to make a handle for the bowl.

3. Cover this strip with the jute rope as well.

4. Then attach this handle to the bowl.

5. If you want you can cover the inside of the bowl with jute rope as well.

6. You can decorate this bowl additionally with lace or decorations.

Your lovely flower basket is ready!

5. Newspapers and Magazines

Manufacturing of papers involve loss of several trees and we should always use it sustainably. The newspapers and magazines that you receive are often either thrown away after reading or you might give them away to the raddiwala but they can be used to make such unique decorations that will leave everyone who sees it awestruck! You can try out new art forms like decoupage or paper mache. You can even use them to make trivets or hotmats, shopping bags, baskets, coasters or even fruit basket! We got this lovely DIY for you to make that eco-friendly basket for your flowers, made all from old magazines and newspapers and a little bit of weaving technique. Here’s a video for making that unbelievable basket all made of newspapers! 

And that’s how you can save the environment in a new way by recycling right at home and at the same time saving your money by not buying new home-décor as well. What’s more? You learn new art forms and develop new hobbies too! You can even gift these beautiful decor items to your friends and relatives, keeping them guessing how you made such masterpieces. The possibilities are endless! We hope you enjoyed our take on recycling the things at home.

Tried making something from above? Do share your handiwork and don’t forget to tag us on Instagram with #girlsbuzzindia!