Posted by Snow in 
1. Plastic Liners
Those ever present plastic coated paper liners and packaging dividers that come in everything from frozen cakes to pastries to microwave meals and pizzas can be re-used. Cookie packages and pastry plastics also should be saved. These trays are great organizers for crafts trays for beads, gems, parts, small parts, and furniture assembly.
Collect these in a drawer. It’s likely they will be clean since the goods they came with were frozen solid. Fill a crafts drawer with these odds and ends for pasting and gluing. Just throwing them away is pointless. Great for scouring spills and stains from garage floors and gum off sidewalks.
2. Newspaper Bag
Forget ever buying paper bags again. Teach kids to make their own green lunch bags. Folding the newspaper with a few staples and some rope and a reinforcer handle edge (using those liners again) make a brand new (green) bag. See Youtube video
A hole punch and a ball point pen is also needed. Get the kids together making their lunch bags while watching TV on a school night. This is a great work ahead group project for a green birthday party or a group bake sale or nature walk. Handing them out in the mall for small size purchases= Priceless.
3. Dishwashing Soap Container
Surely God’s gift to green living, the used dish detergent container can mix small amounts of paint and make sure none goes to waste on a thrifty craft project. Flour paste or thinned up glue for decoupage can be repeatedly dispensed without drying out the entire batch. Re-use dishwashing detergent containers to apply thin tube refills and automotive liquids to engines.
Dissolve overly stringent or sudsy laundry detergent in half container solution of water and shake. Commercial laundry detergents today are filled with chemicals, colorants, and additives to proof clothing and plump up its appearance, and are valued for their fragrance more than cleaning power. Many washes of clothing really only need a brisk rinse. Spot clean clothing with serious cleaner to loosen dirt or stains, then wash in light solution.
4. Funnel Thyself
Next time you need to use a funnel for something like pesticide, motor oil, nail polish remover, or other harmful liquids whose traces have no business being washed down the sink, use a paper funnel. Curve the rectangular shape into a circle and staple or tape.
Whatever eco-damage of the solvent, chemical, or herbicide that goes through the funnel can now be limited to the taint of the funnel in the trash. Running the plastic or metal funnel under a sink and harming either gray water or sewer water supplies just costs the community chemicals in the long run. Cleaning a funnel with paper towels is just wasteful.
5. The Plastic Bag Trick
Save the shopping bags from stores that don’t bag it green. The plastic drawstring can bag a paint tray and allow directly poured paint to function like the washboard tray for a home remodel or touch up roller paint job. When the brush is soaking and the work is done, carefully remove drawstring bag with paint from the paint tray. You’ve then got a clean tray, and no paint residues down the sink.
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