National Recycling Week

Last week was actually National recycling Week - but, hey, recycling is something worth doing all year 'round. For a whole lot of ideas and information abut recycling check out the recycling week website here - including a whole of lot of resources to help host a Swap Party!

Another tack on recycling is to buy products made from other products

From this: To this:

Last year I purchased some little tin angel Christmas decorations made out of drink cans, and made in Cambodia, where the picture (above) of the family on the dump is taken. So while getting the goods here probably uses up far more resources than the product is worth buying these goods is helping some of the world's poorest to live. One of my favourite examples of this is Trashbags (web site here). Fabulous looking bags - for shopping or for handbags, and some homewares as well, are made out of rubbish from poor regions in the Asia Pacific, including the community who live on the Smokey Mountain rubbish dump in the Philippines (see photo below). Trashbags are committed to ethical and fair trade and the income from these bags goes to community and livelihood projects.

recycle? no precycle!

Its been around for ages. Our grandmothers did it. Some of us have done it for a long time. Even though we didnt know it’s name. Or that it was fashionable. “Precycling” is catching on as the latest fad, a timely manifestation of green marketing. What does this trendy new buzzword actually mean? It’s apparently another way of saying “conserve.” As in, re-using plastic water bottles rather than tossing them and buying another one. Re-using plastic and paper bags. Buying large quantities rather than single-serving packaging.
As Brandweek reports:

Precyclers remove themselves from junk mail lists, read paper-based media online
and even carry around “precycling kits” consisting of cloth napkins and silverware—anything to reduce waste and not contribute to the recycling bin.
“It’s not just about how you dispose of [products and packaging] anymore,” said Melissa Lavigne, director of marketing for The Intelligence Group [the people who came up with the word]. “It’s about being conscious about products you buy in the first place. That’s the idea behind precycling.”

Read the full post here
Then you can leave a comment to let us know some of your grooviest precycling practices?

But on the matter of recycling, I saw these very stylish pots (pictured above) when I was out today - can you guess what they are made from? Truck tyres. Look great dont they.