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Recycling bags
When we moved into our house last year we wanted to use the area under the benches in the entry as our recycling zone. However, the space was too small for small laundry baskets, and too shallow for tall garbage cans, and everything else was really kinda too small. So I decided I needed to MAKE some totes to take recycled glass, metal, plastic and paper to the dump. I really like the overall shape and style of the re-usable bags Hannaford grocers sell, so I used that as my basic idea. Then I used my two empty birdseed bags and threw myself upon my friends for more; Kathy was in the process of moving and building a new house, so she gave me her entire stash of empty bags and I used them ALL!
The bench, with the left side up and various stuff on the floor and the right side of the bench making a mess.
Here is what the inside looked like using large drawstring garbage bags on the hooks I installed:
The bags shlumped and were an utter nuisance, hard to get stuff in without entirely clearning off the bench, etc.
So I sketched out dimensions and plans for bags that would work:
My working sketch...very rudimentary! The IKEA bag is that big blue one they sell for a dollar...use that on the right side of the bench for the voluminous redemption stuff and for the paper, which seems to clone itself at night. In Maine we pay a deposit on soda, Gatorade, wine etc. bottles, and get the nickels back at a redemption center, not the dump so having an extra large bag means we don't have to go as often.
Then, time to sew. My corners weren’t the neatest. But I made each large bag from about 1 1/2 birdseed bags, then used recycled tyvek envelopes cut into strips to “bind” the seams:
"taped" seams with strips cut from recycled Tyvek mailing envelopes
The leftovers...aren't you proud of me? I didn't KEEP all that clutter! It's in the garbage bin in my studio!
DRUM ROLL please:
Done and in place! Each bag has blue handles (which in this photo are tucked between the bags), and at the four corners there are small black loops that slide over the hooks so the bags stay upright, open and in place. Left to right: glass, metal, plastic, paper (more or less alphabetical so I can remember what goes where and don't have to open the lid all the way to toss stuff in)
The bags are PERFECT! The only snag is that they do get rather full, and that overhang on the back of the bench kinda makes it a pain to get the bags out. So I just remove the least-full bag first and turn the others sideways after removing them from the hooks. The hooks work well… I bought single hooks from Walmart to be thrifty . Shoulda bought sturdy double hooks from the hardware store, as one of the cheapo hooks has already broken. Having two-hooks per unit would make it easier to remove just the full bag, but it still works.
We’ve used these for over half a year now. They are holding up quite well, and rinse out easily if someone (AHEM, guys!) doesn’t quite rinse out a container before chucking them into the bags.
Hope this might inspire you to make your own recycling center!
March 13th, 2012 at 7:16 am
Super great idea to make the plastic type bags to carry to the recycling center! That’s much easier than the plastic bins that are too bulky for me. Now I just wish I had a very convienient place like you have under that bench to take them. Oh well, I’ll have to give that some thought. Thanks for the tutorial!
March 13th, 2012 at 8:37 am
Love this! Such a well-thought-out, green project. So many spaces in our homes are minor annoyances, but when you use them everyday the minor becomes major. godd for you for solving a minor annoyance.
March 13th, 2012 at 9:08 am
great idea and what a neat recycling center
March 13th, 2012 at 9:09 am
Would this be an instance of thinking outside the box? Good going!
March 18th, 2012 at 9:13 am
Love your ingenuity. I found that putting 1″ x 1″ velcro tabs at the outside of each bag helps. The bags attach to each other at the corners for stability and stay upright. The hooks may not be necessary with this system.
March 18th, 2012 at 3:51 pm
Is it wrong for me to covet you house?
March 18th, 2012 at 10:29 pm
I had some of those blue ikea bags and they smelled funny. Musty. I like your birdseed bags much better.
We don’t have to sort our recyclable, we just have a big bin that we wheel to the end of the driveway. it’s nice, we now recycle more than we throw out.