Repurposing

Repurposing – it’s a 21st century word to describe an old concept. It’s funny how updating an old idea with a modern word makes it fashionable and chic. It’s now purposeful and noble.
Taking an item that’s no longer useful and using it for another purpose, instead of throwing it away.
I’m all for it! It fits my lifestyle and beliefs. Repurposing helps reduce, by a little bit anyway, the massive quantities of trash flying to our landfills every day … or worse yet, the trash being dumped into the ocean.
It’s a great idea for everyone, especially those trying to conscientiously live a greener life, a life kinder to our earth. It’s hardly a new concept. I grew up with “repurposing”. Then it was a matter of economy; a necessity to be frugal and wise with the limited family funds.
My dad is the king of repairing with bailing wire and duct tape. If there’s a frugal way to achieve an end result, he knows how. Unfortunately, I was such a wise and all-knowing child – as many of us were in our younger days – I didn’t learn near as much as I could have.
How many readers remember all the wonder uses of empty oatmeal containers? Drums, cars, trains, crayon holders … the possibilities are endless. Remember ‘telephones’ from old cans? Remember Readers Digests turned into Christmas trees?
One of the earliest craft projects with my mom I remember was making trash cans for the bedroom. We got empty ice cream containers from the local ice cream store. We wrapped old magazine pages around my mom’s knitting needles and glued the colorful cylindrical tubes around the container. Ta-Da! We had a creative masterpiece; colorful, useful, and free. (Now that I think of it, my mom was probably happy that it kept us kids busy for several hours.)
About the same time, I remember a Christmas present my sister and I received one year. It was another one of my moms “repurposing” ideas. She took two empty bleach bottles, cut off the top third and punched holes around the cut top. She crocheted through the holes and created the top part of a drawstring purse. Then she added small bottles of hand lotion, emery boards, an orange stick and other things I’ve long since forgotten. It made a nice girly gift for her two daughters. I must have been fond of this particular gift since I remember it over forty years later.
I fondly recall (now) my grandmother turning potato chip bags inside out and using them for gift wrapping. At the time it wasn’t so heart-warming and endearing. I was a young mother and horribly embarrassed. Now, I wish she were here so I could thank her for the memory.
See … it’s in my genes. I come by these habits honestly.
Repurposing. It was a lifestyle then. Now, after years of increasing mindless consumption and waste, the pendulum is swinging back.
Now we have purses out of gum wrappers, CD covers out of chip bags, playgrounds and streets out of recycled mild cartons. We’re making progress. We still have a long way to go. Sometimes it’s the proverbial ‘one-step forward, three steps back.’
This week, I urge you to look closer at what’s in your hands headed towards the trash can. Is it something that can be used for another purpose? Lots of little things add up. In the long run our pocket books will be happier and the earth a little healthier. It’s a green thing. It’s a lifestyle.