Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

I’ve been a fan of recycling for a long time, so washing and reusing Ziploc bags isn’t something new that I picked up since living overseas. I believe the desire to not waste things comes from my grandparents’ living through the experience of the Great Depression. They learned to use everything for multiple purposes until the things couldn’t be used anymore. Even now my grandfather is notorious for his collection of junk that he turns into wind catchers, sun reflectors or any number of other unnecessary treasures and my mom gets teased mercilessly by her younger sister for some of the things she saves.

Anyway, since there aren’t community recycling centers around here it bothers me. But the lack of recycling centers hasn’t stopped some people. Stores around here are likely to send you home with your purchase of 5 eggs or a half kilo of tomatoes in one of their bags made from old school papers. Or you could also buy a large tote bag made out of several plastic milk bags (we haven’t seen a gallon of milk here yet but you can buy a 500ml plastic bag of milk almost anywhere there’s a refrigerator).

Now, allow me to divert from the recycling train of thought for a moment to describe the shower in our bathroom. The “tub” portion is about 2 sq. ft. with sides that rise up about 2 inches. However, the rod for the shower curtain makes a larger square above this tub, which means the curtain hangs over a portion of the floor, not just the tub. Add to that slight problem the fact that the shower curtain is about 6 inches above the top of the tub and you’ll realize that a wet floor all around the shower is inevitable.

Going back to the thoughts of recycling with the creative examples of recycling around me I decided to try my hand at lengthening the shower curtain in our bathroom. So, one afternoon last week I sat down with a bunch of the little plastic bags that most of our fruit and vegetables are given to us in to devise some longer shower curtain rings. Step one: cut the plastic bag into three “strings.” Step two: braid the plastic “strings” together just like a camp craft project. Step three: repeat steps one and two until you have enough rope braid for all the curtain rings. It aint rocket science, but it was kinda fun.