Questions tagged [reuse]
Giving materials and objects an additional life by using them again, rather than [recycling] or discarding them.
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How to get rid of half a can of durable water repellent spray (similar to 3M Scotchgard)
(Cross-posted, together with additional questions, to a post on the /r/Anticonsumption sub-Reddit.)
I have an 8 ounce (~200 g) can of Foot Locker ultra fabric & leather protector spray. I guess ...
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Is there a more sustainable alternative to buying water glasses for the kitchen or dining room?
Glass (silicon oxide) is sourced from two types of places on Earth:
Quartz mines featuring large white colored boulders.
Sand deposits.
The quartz mines are sometimes mined more often than the sand ...
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What is more sustainable than putting peanut butter jars in the trash?
📦 🥜
Given two courses of action a1 and a2, there exist times such that we can classify action a1 as more sustainable than a2 (relatively speaking).
Suppose that one of the two actions is to put ...
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Should I donate old electronics or drop them off at e-waste recycling centers?
Lately I have been needing to get rid of some old (and/or broken) electronics and have been struggling with the question of whether I should try to donate the electronics to someone or just drop them ...
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How to start sustainable living in UAE?
I live in UAE. Here government has started few initiatives recently but I think there is far way to go. I am trying to be more thoughtful for the things I use but It is very difficult as whatever the ...
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How to treat rainwater for indoor use?
I'd like to maximize rainwater reuse in my household. I want to wash the dishes and take a bath/shower with the water, as well as supply a washing machine with it. Wikipedia states, that acid rain is ...
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Should I down cycle something myself instead of giving it away knowing it will end up in landfills?
I currently live in an Eastern European country where conscious consumption and recycling is uncommon. For context,
I am sometimes frown upon by the cashiers when coming to a grocery store with a ...
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Which dishwasher program is best to conserve the plates?
I was arguing with my wife over which dishwasher program to use. I want to use the eco program because it is most environmentally friendly, but she countered that the long program (3:30h) puts more ...
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Is the drain-off water from water purifiers fit for gardening?
I have 3 stage water purifier installed at my home which first filters the water, performs reverse osmosis and then treats it with UV-C rays. The water that is released at stage 2 (RO) is usually ...
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Can furnace condensate water be used for houseplants?
I recently had my old, broken furnace replaced with a high-efficiency condensing furnace. One function of this furnace is that it extracts enough heat from the exhaust gases to condense them into ...
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Keep my hands warm while working on a laptop?
I want to keep my hands warm(er) while working on a laptop in a cold room. Would it make sense to take a polar fleece blanket, fold it in half, sew together the two edges that are perpendicular to the ...
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Is there a single-use product that is more sustainable that its multi-use counterpart?
This may be more of an academic question and less of practical relevance but I hope to have some input from this site nevertheless.
In my opinion, multi-use products are always more sustainable than ...
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How to get the most out of computer hardware before it becomes obsolete?
Let's say, i use my personal computer for office tasks only and am happy with its performance as long as the operating system and the browser receive regular security updates.
What would be a ...
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How do I clean my avocado oil intermediate bulk container so I can store water in it?
I have two 275 gallon (1040 liter) IBC totes that used to hold avacado oil in one, and canola oil in the other. I want to use it for emergency drinking water. What is the best way to clean it and ...
Gabriel DeMaria
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Should I purchase new tins or plastic refills for chocolate powder?
A few brands of chocolate milk mix come in re-sealable tins like this:
It is also possible (and slightly cheaper) to buy 'refill packs', in order to reuse the tin. However, these refill packs are ...
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Refill ink cartridge of ballpoint pen
I refilled an empty cartridge of a ballpoint pen with regular ink, but now the pen doesn't work.
Why is that?
How to refill the cartridge of ballpoint pen properly?
What substance could I mix the ink ...
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Why is so much railroad steel not recycled?
As I’ve wandered in many places, I have often encountered abandoned railways, or railways still in use surrounded by hundreds of discarded spikes.
It makes sense in most places for scrapyards to be ...
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Is Tawashi really suitable for dishwashing?
As a step to reduce my waste I planned to make a tawashi to replace artificial dishwashing sponges. I had a t-shirt not suitable to be donated, waiting to be upcycled, so I made t-shirt yarn out of it ...
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Can metal drink cans be melted at home? [duplicate]
Can metal drink cans be melted at home and reused, remoulded into something?
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Any succesful initiatives for packaging material reuse?
I find that we are having more and more things delivered as opposed to buying in stores. This winter a few cardboard boxes with 10kg of oranges, several books, and just this week a fridge.
I was ...
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Best Uses for Scrap Aluminum
Much to my dismay, my apartment building recently canceled their recycling program. My household generates a fair amount of waste aluminum cans that we were previously sending to the local recycling ...
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How many times do you need to re-use cloth napkins to offset their impact?
My local municipality has a "Waste Watchers" program that provides resources for reducing the quantity of waste sent to landfills. One of their tips is to use cloth napkins instead of paper napkins.
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Is there an efficient way to dispose of credit cards?
I have about 10 credit cards which I ended up not using for various reasons and I feel bad for having to throw them away in the trash, this is the case for many other things, but seems quite ...
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How can ceramics be recycled?
How can ceramics be recycled? Does the answer vary greatly depending on glaze or other factors, and if so, how can those factors be determined (i.e. how can I tell if a glaze contains lead or not)?
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Reuse or "dollar vote"?
I'm a big fan of reusing and if I really need to buy something, I buy it used. For example, I've been using second hand or refurbished phones for many years. However, while that is good for the ...
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Are any large restaurant chains pursuing better alternatives to recyclable packaging?
Yesterday Kraft Foods announced that by 2025 all of its packaging will be recyclable. (Note that while they include "reusable" and "compostable" in the announcement, they talk almost exclusively about ...
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How do I get rid of numerous small pieces of charcoal?
There's a small piece of land used for burning tree branches on bonfire (because that's the easiest way to get rid of them). Most of the material gets burnt to ashes but some of it only turns into ...
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Environmental concerns of a plastic bottle boat?
Having found several images of boats constructed primarily of plastic bottles, the boy scout within me was interested by the idea. However, I know that plastic bottles biodegrade in sunlight, and the ...
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How can I reuse or upcycle used, leftover, tiny bath soap bar bits?
After the bath soaps have been used, tiny bits remain. Note that this is not about re-using half-used or little-used soaps such as found in hotels. I am aware there are charities such as Sundara Fund ...
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How to sustainably dispose of or break down used cooking oils?
I have recently wondered what I should be doing with my used kitchen oils having seen a news article about an enormous fatberg clogging the sewer in London.
Obviously putting it down the sink really ...
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Is it worth washing a plastic bag to reuse it?
As I ask myself the question and start thinking about it, I realise it might be obvious that it is worth it. But I thought I'd ask anyway as someone might have a nice analysis to share.
The other day,...
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Ideas for Altoid cans?
My wife is 'addicted' to Altoids. We have hundreds of empty cans and have already recycled thousands. I was thinking I could put them to good use at home. Looking for ideas.
'altoid tins' by 'secret ...
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How can I extend the life of mobile phones that can't be used in my country anymore?
I own two "dumbphones" that are now useless in Australia because they rely on the 2G network, which is being phased out entirely this year (2017).
The two phones work perfectly fine, an I'd rather ...
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Using glass bottles in walls of buildings [duplicate]
I have seen pictures of homes and buildings in dry climates were they have used glass bottles in the walls with what looks like either concrete or mud. Is this just for aesthetics? Do they provide ...
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What's the most sustainable way to re-use or dispose of meat scraps?
Given that you shouldn't put leftovers of meals that has touched meat in compost bins due to the risk of attracting vermin, what is the most sustainable way to deal with these scraps?
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How many times do you need to use a cheap re-usable bag to offset its impact?
An op-ed in the Wall Street Journal argues that many re-usable grocery bags are made using more oil than old-fashioned "single-use" plastic grocery bags.
This makes sense, as quite a bit more ...
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How to clean a reusable plastic coffee cup, such as KeepCup?
I've owned a KeepCup for about a year and though I clean it after use it really is starting to stink.
I've tried scrubbing it with a scouring pad and detergent and leaving it to soak overnight, but ...
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Mismatched socks? What to do with hundreds of them?
I may be unique here but over the years I have collected perhaps hundreds of mismatched socks of various sizes and colors. Some are good cotton and others are like new. Since I have a large family and ...
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How I use/clean this old SIGG bottle that makes water taste bad?
In my furnished apartment I found a 0.6 litres SIGG bottle from unknown year and previous tenant.
It makes the water taste bad (not clearly a metallic taste, somewhat different or more in addition to ...
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Does the Reduce-Reuse-Recycle rule always apply?
Does the triple-R rule (or its extended version like Reduce-Reuse-Repair-Recycle) apply to everything, in that order, as the most sustainable process?
Just wondering if you could think of any ...
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How to benefit from air-conditioning water
I'm doing research on the water of the air conditioning, and a dissertation on how it could be collected and where it could be used. I already started by collecting some figures and I did some ...
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Is plastic food packaging 100% reusable?
There is the prominent argument that we should buy food without plastic packaging because plastic is made of oil and thus bad.
I'm wondering, however, what if the plastic packaging remains in the ...
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Reusing or recycling old CD's and DVD's
I have some stacks of old CD's and DVD's.
The piles includes traditional CD's and DVD's, as well as writable and re-writable discs of various types.
In order to prevent these from ending up in a ...
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How to avoid planned obsolescence when buying a second hand smartphone
Since I think buying a second hand smartphone will please the environment more than buying a new one I am planning to buy one. I already considered things like quality, battery etc. But there is still ...
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How good is it to reuse water from plant pots?
I'm living in an apartment, and after I water my plants the water goes to plates below the pots. The pots are in a metallic structure above the plates, so I can take the plates to reuse the water (...
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How can we dispose or recycle hair clippings from barber shops?
Near by my home there are barber shops where they throw hair clippings in the dustbin and when the contents are burned it gives a bad smell.
How I can suggest them to properly dispose or recycle the ...
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How to account for environmental impact of second hand goods
I've been trying to understand and reduce my impact on the environment, and particularly to understand what a really sustainable lifestyle would look like. I (roughly) get the concepts of ecological ...
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When buying beer is refilling growlers better than recycling bottles and cans?
I'm trying to decide if it's worth buying all my beer in reusable growlers (32-64 oz. / 0.9-1.9 liter reusable glass containers). I live in New York, so doing so requires me to go out of my way but is ...
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Scavenging heat from exhaust flues
I am building a set of greenhouses. they will be 2700 sq.ft. each. I intend to grow year round in one and extend the season in the other two with them being dormant for 6 weeks mid winter. We will be ...
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How to fix plastic (acetate) glasses frame?
My prescription glasses has fallen on the ground... it's an Oakley Shifter 2.0 Black Smoke. Lenses are still good but the frame has broken when falling on the ground (a clean cut directly where the ...
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