I’ve been working on a bunch of recycled/upcycled arts and crafts lately to get ready for the sidewalk show in Aurora this year. It really got me thinking a lot about the mass amounts of reusable things that so many people throw away. I made this chess set from a couple buckets of leftover parts and pieces that I bought from yard sales and scraps that folks were going to throw away.

I see so many things abandoned and forgotten by folks…things thrown in the trash that could be used again rather than thrown in a landfill…Not that I want to bring it all to my house and turn my place into a landfill, but a little bit of thought and a few minutes of your time could save the world from becoming one big landfill.  You don’t have to turn everything into a work of art…sometimes just being a little creative you can think of ways to reuse what you use.

Here is an example: I like to go camping a lot and I also have a fire pit at home that I use as often as possible. You know those little cardboard tubes that hold your roll of toilet paper? Well…next time you are about to throw them in the trash, take a moment (maybe while you contemplate the next roll of toilet paper) to tare it open and re-roll it into a small roll and put it in a recycled baggie to take on your next camping trip as a fire starter…

It gets a bit crazy when you think of how many people are in the world and then think of how much stuff they throw away…I found this great little population clock that shows the world population…that’s a lot of toilet paper! And, it’s a lot of other things that could be reused or recycled. If you come up with a great recycled/upcycled project let me know at https://www.facebook.com/ILikeAjaiArt