recycle2shop.com

Eco blog - news and views from Victoria, BC, Canada. Recycle2shop is all about saving our earth by decreasing landfill the eco friendly way - ‘Trash 2 Treasure’.  We will bring you recycling facts and recycled products for great gifts.    Everything we sell and promote  is made from recycled materials. 

new life for old boots

Recycle2shop is a market place for all eco designers, craftspeople, artisans and small businesses who are making a difference - aka eco commerce with a conscience.

Rubbish is a good thing, yes, really - smelly dirty rubbish can be miraculously turned into a thing of beauty.

Carless in Victoria is possible because we have user friendly public transport AND I live in funky Fernwood, which means I can walk, bike or bus to downtown under half an hour.  Walking to town is a pleasant 30 minute stroll along tree lined residential roads.  I sound like an advert for the tourist board! 

When I need a car (especially for transporting Recycle2shop’s ’stuff’ to market) I walk 3 blocks to pick up my Victoria Carshare Coop truck or car.

Took the bus to town the other day (raining the proverbial) and the bus driver was amazing - yes, he actually waited for the less able to sit down before he took off and he slowly braked when coming up to a stop - sometimes we look like a bunch of drunks waiting to get off,  a tad unsteady on the feet as some drivers like to think they are on a rally course.  I feel like a ‘grumpy old woman’ some days when a passenger who obviously needs to sit is left standing by some lumpen’ youth (see what I mean about ‘grumpy’).  However, on that same bus trip one young man after another stood up with alacrity when the need arose-astonishing.  Obviously our bus driver’s considerate ‘aura’ was leaking out to the rest of us.

Try out the bus system, leave your car at home and take part in a really interesting bus ride.

OK, here’s the deal - only good news about recycling will appear on these pages.  2009 was enough doom and gloom for a lifetime.  I won’t go all ‘Pollyanna’  here - I figure we all know what’s up or should that be ‘down’ (my baaaad sense of humour will not change, of course).

So the first bit of  good news rumour is that the UK environment minister, Tony Benn (the last of the socialist ministers to survive in the labour party) has announced that there are plans to divert food waste from landfill.  Lead the way Tony. 

Stay tuned for [re]jeanius.  All will be revealed in the next installment.

The anti’s are at it again - every time there is an international platform for climate discussion the skeptics ramp up their attacks.  The skeptics are supported by the corporations’ self interest vs climate research scientists supported by - um - who? Universities?  Magical thinking (ignoring all evidence hoping for a wishful outcome) will lead us to the Earth as an organism (Gaia Theory) getting rid of us and leaving cockroaches in charge.

OK that’s my one and only political rant for the year!

Let’s just keep on recycling and making our local environment a whole lot cleaner.

Returning from a very successful craft show & sale in Victoria - the interest and support from everyone who stopped by our booth is what makes this project so worthwhile. 

I love explaining that plastic bottles turn into soft, durable fleece and nylon  (made into the baby rug pictured - overlooking the ocean in this view from a Victoria clifftop).  We sold out of these great little gifts so it’s back to the sewing machine for me.

Victoria CRD (waste recycle) are looking into wood recycling - the UK has been working on a similar project and LetsRecycle has the latest news.

We are off to sell our re-goodies in the Pearkes Centre  Tillicum,  Xmas Fair this weekend.  Come and say hello!

Plastic bags recycled, warm the cockles of my heart (where does that phrase come from anyway? From my not so extensive word search, this phrase is supposed to have been in use since the 17th century and has to do with the heart shape of a cockle - which is a delicious little bivalve).

Anyway, back to the vases - they are made with coloured plastic bags which are cut up or torn into their cool designs.  A glass jam jar fits inside to hold the flowers.  If the jam jar is tall enough this can become a T light cover…the light flickers through the plastic cover.

If you are a designer, artisan, small business and you use recycled materials, please contact us so we can show your products and a link to your website or location.

Leona makes boxes for jewellery (selling at craft fair stalls and markets ) out of  old calendars.  The paper is heavy and glossy and easy to manipulate.  They are origami boxes and she had no clue how to do it so off she went to Etsy and YouTube and here is the video.

Our circuit board christmas tree ornaments are selling like hotcakes on our ebay store Uniquely Eco.  They make great eco friendly wedding gifts and favors.

Now if we could sell a bazillion of these little guys that would recycle tons of old circuit board.

We also sell ornaments made from recycled tetra paks (juice cartons to the rest of us).  The latest from the UK is that recycled tetrapaks have to go to the main plant in Sweden to be recycled which means transport energy being used.  There used to be a plant in Scotland but that proved not to be cost effective. TetraPak recycling in Canada does not seem to be as problematic, as we have paper mills already in operation due to our huge forestry industry so the structure is already in place to process recycled juice cartons.

Listening to a Bioneers talk on Village900 radio we hear about a company, Novomer, that has discovered how to make plastics from CO2 greenhouse gas - recycled CO2.  How amazing is that!  That’s the sort of thing that ‘Nature’ evolves: CO2 is used by plants to make food - a ‘poison’ recycled.  The question being: is this plastic useable in the areas that we actually need plastics - medicine for one (artificial limbs, heart valves, hip joints)?  Biodegradeable plastic will be of no use in plastic that is meant to last a lifetime.

Spent the last weekend at the BC Womens Show at the Pearkes Centre.  It was way too nice out for people to be stuck indoors.  The few that did attend were all very interested in products made from recycled materials (known in the ‘trade’ as ‘recyclates’).  Surprise and delight being the main reactions - yes, recycled can be elegant, trendy and sophisticated.

My Bokashi composter is working a treat. If it’s the 2nd Saturday this week then it must be recycling day down at the Fernwood Community - that’s for my bags of plastic bags and tetra packs (Recycle2shop sells Christmas ornaments made from those Tetra Packs).  These pretty vases/T-light covers are remade from coloured recycled plastic bags for sale on our ebay store.