Tuesday Tidbit – Switch It Off

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budget, eco-friendly, energy saving, environmental, money saving, saving, Tuesday tidbit, upcycling, upcycling challenge

This one is pretty straight forward and though it’s not recycling it ties in with the ideas behind my 2 week upcycling challenge – saving resources, environmentally friendly and money saving. In the USA 20% of total energy consumption is residential. In the UK nearly 1/3 of the total energy consumption is from the home. In Australia it accounts for 77% of greenhouse gas emissions – that’s more than 3/4!

Even when your TV screen is off if it’s still on at the power point it is consuming electricity, same for your electric kettle, washing machine and dryer, computers and laptops and phone chargers, stereo and radio and of course lights and heaters. If you’re not using them turn them off at the wall. It only takes a second to turn them back on again and in the meantime your planet and your wallet will breathe a little easier.

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Upcycling Project 1: Tin Cans

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cans, cheap, crafts, DIY, easy, economic, environmental, fun, home, money saving, project, quick, recycle, tin cans, upcycle

I’m really, really into upcycling and recycling at the moment. Trying to use up things around the house I would normally throw away instead of buying more things. This is partly an economic thing (according to the budget I’ve been keeping the last few months I spend a lot more on craft and household items than I thought) but mostly just an extra awareness of how easy it is to create unnecessary waste. Maybe because it was Earth Day last week or that we missed a bin collection and I saw how quickly our recycling bin fills up or just realising that I’m constantly upset how much everything at the supermarket is packaged I resolved to have a good couple of weeks creating and reusing – or ‘upcycling’ – projects only. No trips to the craft or hardware stores for anything. If I don’t already have it I won’t use it. Two weeks like this is my goal. Hopefully by the end of this challenge I will have gotten into a more eco-friendly mindset about my crafts, what is rubbish and what isn’t and what is truly necessary.