New ways to think about recycling, including your oral care products!
Although I’m not the greenest person in the world, I try my best to reduce my carbon footprint by buying certain items second-hand, DIYing instead of buying new home decor when I can, and trying to recycle regularly. Recycling is a small but important way to make the world a cleaner, healthier, and more sustainable place, for ourselves as well as future generations.
When you hear the word recycle, you probably think about placing glass jars in a bin. And yes, that’s one element of recycling, but there are so many easy ways to recycle, some of which you might already be doing, and others that are easy to implement! Here are a few suggestions for how to reuse, repurpose, and recycle common things around your home.
Reuse Plastic Bottles
We don’t buy plastic water bottles that often, but when we do, we never throw them away because they make the perfect toddler toy! Maybe it’s just my kid, but he loves playing with empty water bottles — they’re great for kicking and throwing, and don’t make a ton of noise when we’re on a call. Pimp them out by adding some rice or beans inside so they become a musical instrument, or tie a string around so they can pull them around as they run around the house. If you’re a plant mom instead, water bottles make pretty cool makeshift watering systems, so if you consistently forget to water your plants, use a plastic water bottle!
Recycle Your Oral Care Products
Now if you’re a fellow Black woman, you might use your toothbrush not only for brushing to help prevent tooth decay and gum disease. If you’re like me, you also use a toothbrush as a hairbrush for your edges! But did you know you can recycle your old toothpaste tubes, floss, floss picks, floss containers, and toothbrushes through the Crest & Oral-B Recycle on Us program? Traditional recycling plants (where we send our glass or cardboard boxes) don’t process oral care products, so Crest & Oral-B teamed up to recycle them so they can be turned into school benches, bottles, and clothes! It’s easy to participate — just request a free shipping label here, print it and throw in all your used oral care products (from any brand!)! Then mail them in and the Recycle on Us program will take care of the rest. Now that’s something to smile about!
Repurpose Glass Jars
I always have to remind everyone else in the house not to throw away the peanut butter, honey, or jam jars once they’re empty. Glass jars are perfect for drinking lemonades and iced coffees, and also come in handy as storage for things like cotton swabs and cotton balls. Most recently I repurposed a glass jar to store homemade hot sauce I whipped up, but I’ve also used them to hold tapered candles when I don’t feel like breaking out the fancy candlesticks.
I use empty glass jars/ plastic containers to re-store oil used for frying, keep condiments and seasonings that come in sachets. Once done with beauty products in little (spray) bottles, I use the bottles for hair water spray, or to batch other products for when I want to travel light 😊
Taking empty leave in conditioners bottles to mix diy products spray mixture or use it has a water bottle, empty candles for Bobby pins holders, ink pens, paper clips or whats not,empty glass bottle to mix up products and I seen someone used empty water bottles to plant herbs in