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.
Talk about plastic bags - the big controversy in the recycling world at the moment is all about biodegradeable plastic. Unfortunately, biodegradeable bags cannot be recycled into anything and they contaminate plastic recyclates making them unuseable. ‘Biodegradeable’ only breaks down if exposed to oxygen and our landfills are not known for their oxygen content. Landfills are anaerobic - that’s why they produce the greenhouse gas, methane. So the answer to plastic bags contaminating the earth is not to try to solve the problem by using a substitute plastic. Brown paper is at least compostable. We need lateral thinkers to solve this conundrum.
[re]design is a social enterprise based in the UK for “designers who don’t want to make landfill”. Their latest show is called Doing It For The Kids (a slide show) and is described as sustainable play design. They have striking images of ‘toys’ recycled toys make great gifts, all made from recycled materials. We are looking for Canadian designers to feature on our website…if you are or know of one, please contact us with their information.
Victoria CRD are talking about banning wood from landfill…great idea, as long as we prohibit businesses from burning ‘waste’ wood. Recycling wood is a workable, profitable business model and check out a British Columbia Recycled Wood Company
Last day for this season on Sunday at Government Street Artisan Market (by the China Town Gates). This is Leona’s chance to talk ‘recycling’ to folks from Victoria and out of town and a chance to sell upcycled products. These products show what happens to all that recycling - no, it doesn’t end up on landfill.
Join us at the BC Women’s Show & Sale on October 3 & 4 (10-5pm) at Pearkes Recreation Centre at Tillicum.
Anyone with a eco friendly garden/bit of earth can compost everything out of the kitchen…bread, bones, fat, protein, in fact all the leftovers that cannot go into green composters.
All you need is the Bokachi system: The system needs a bran mix invented by the Japanese - basically bran and molasses with the magic ingredient - micro-organisms; these ferment the kitchen scraps in any plastic container (recycled, of course). There is no smell and once your container is full - leave for 2 weeks and then deposit in your compost or dig into the ground.
More details available soon on our ‘why recycle’ pages.
Leona is off to the mainland for a conference - carpooling, naturally.
Waterproof Baby Fleece Blanket and Cushion Made From Recycled Plastic
Recycle2shop has been at the Government Street Market in Victoria every Sunday in the summer and sadly we only have 2 more market days to go. People are fascinated by all our ‘upcycled’ products and totally supportive of recycling. Our fleece (made from recycled plastic bottles) products elicit amazement and “how does that work?” We talk recycling - hey, people are actually giving me permission to rabbit on about the wonders of recycling.
Recycle2shop went to UVIC
Yes, we took the message to GreenStart at UVic, Wednesday and Thursday during their first week of classes. They were all too poor after buying books to spend on extras so it was all about the message. Met a passionate recycler from CRD who is engaged in wood recycling (as opposed to burning) and more on that in weeks to come. If you would like to add your views to the CRD proposal you have until September 18th.
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.