Posts Tagged ‘recycling’

  • 08 Nov

    Posted by
    emily


    Category

    $0 Christmas Decorations

    0

    I am that person who listens to Christmas music from October through January. That person who seeks out the Christmas shops in July, that person who ogles at the decorations in Walmart, Target, the dollar store, craft stores, etc. I’m one of those people that has a huge Christmas village of 30+ ceramic houses plus figures, enough to take over my entire bedroom if I let it. I love snowglobes, stockings, decorating the tree, and making Christmas cookies.

    However, this year, Christmas will be different. It will be the first Christmas not in the US. Two years ago, I spent the Christmas season in Africa (listening to “Winter Wonderland while burning in the African heat was great!) but I got back to the US on the 23rd of December. This year, my family will be visiting me, but its not the same.

    We won’t have a tree, other than my little 8” high tree. I’ll be lucky if I have a tomato plant for Christmas- it’d be pre-decorated with red balls! I’m thinking about covering the mangoes on the mango tree outside our house with glitter paint to make believe its a Christmas tree. No pine trees grow here. The fake trees are expensive and ugly.

    What is a Christmas lover to do when thrown into a tropical climate where Christmas is merely one day in the year rather than an entire season of red, green, and glittering lights? I hear that Christmas is usually red and white, not red and green, even. Although, one mall is covered in white and blue sparkling Christmas lights and snowflakes. And Walmart does sell Christmas decorations for fairly cheap. But without any extra income, we don’t have money to buy any Christmas decorations.

    So I am left with the little that I managed to stuff in my bags when I was moving. 2 stockings, my manger set, tiny tree and dollhouse Christmas setup, and 5 ornaments. I don’t know why I chose to bring ornaments. I knew I wouldn’t have a tree. I think more for sentiment. That got wrecked when the starfish Santa my late grandmother gave me was seen floating on the floor during our household flood. Luckily it dried, and didn’t get broken.

    Which brings me to my Christmas season adventure. I am going to decorate the house without spending a penny. I am going to make decorations and be very creative about it. My rules:

    1. I can’t spend any money
    2. I must use junk/recycle/upcycle materials
    3. I can use craft supplies I have in the house
    4. I can use other people’s equipment and junk (ie, borrow a sewing maching, using scraps of fabric that would otherwise be thrown away.)
    5. They must be my own ideas, or adapted from others’ ideas (not directly copied) and I need to give credit to where I find the ideas.
  • 02 Nov

    Posted by
    emily


    Category

    Recycled Brooms out of Bottles

    1

    What is the one thing that every household in Africa has and uses every single day?  A broom, of course!

    How can we make that one thing more durable, work better, and help out with a large environmental problem?  Recycled PET bottle brooms!

    How do you make them?  Get or make a machine to cut the bottles.  Apparently, you can buy them from here, which doesn’t do much good outside of Brazil or if you don’t speak Portuguese.  The whole apparatus costs only R$2,380 (about $1400).  But the machine looks simple enough to make out of scrap wood.  We would just need to bring the blades to cut the bottles and the rest is easy.  Build a wooden frame with a post coming out of it, so the bottle can spin on the post.  Attach the blade to the frame so it will cut the bottle.  And make a crank of some sort.  There are 2 models of crank systems.  One spins the cut bottle strings on a spool, the other on a square frame.  I think the frame is easier to handle.

    This is a simple/short video of the cutting machine.  Obviously, first you have to cut off the bottom of the bottle (stay tuned for ideas on recycling the bottom of the bottle into toys!), and then put the bottle onto the post of the machine.

    After the bottle is cut, then you bake the cut plastic until it is stiffer and stronger.  Apparently you bake it at about 150 C, but I am not sure for how long.  In Africa, it would be (ideally) baked over a stove that burns mango pits or it could be cooked in a regular stove, I suppose.

    After the PET is baked and hard, there are a few different ways to cut and assemble it.  One way is to have a machine that cuts it into pieces, and then have another machine that clamps it onto the broom.  Or, you fold the pieces and string wire through the center, and attach it to a block of wood with holes in it.  It sounds odd, and I wish I had a photo, but I didn’t take any when I saw the project.  So I’m going on google photos…  Or you gather the pieces and wire them together around a broomstick, and put the top of the bottle over the broomstick to hold them on.

    Attach a broom handle onto the wooden blocks…

    And we can revolutionize Africa!!  Ok, I’m kidding.  But we do intend on bringing this idea and equipment to Africa when we go back.  And we’re going to start up a micro-enterprise with it in Mozambique.  And sell brooms to the whole country for affordable prices and give work opportunities to women in Pemba.

    Just to Review:

    Why Brooms?

    Everyone in Africa uses them.

    Everyone needs them.

    The straw brooms fall apart easily.

    PET brooms are strong and will sweep dirt well.

    It will cut down on plastic bottles filling the streets.

    Teaching local women to make them will provide jobs and income for families in deep poverty.

    (note: I did not take any of these photos, nor am I claiming them as my own.  I am using them for illustrative educational purposes on this blog)

  • 26 Oct

    Posted by
    emily


    Category

    Mango Pits

    0

    How does one recycle mango pits? They are compostable, yes, but they require a long time. They pose a health hazard in Africa where, during mango season, trenches are filled with mango pits, the orange flesh rotting in the sun, covered by swarms of disease-carrying black flies.

    So what to do with the mango pits?

    Our ideas so far:
    Compost them
    Make jewelry out of them, like coconut shells
    Make biodegradable plastic out of them- this is new research done by a Brazilian university, and it would take more research and time to implement in Africa
    Burn as fuel for a special type of cooking stove