Green Living 101: How to Reuse Old Toilet Paper Tubes
Face it we all have an abundance of those toilet paper tubes floating around the house. It’s toilet paper, we all use it, we all need it, can’t go without it…or at least shouldn’t go without it, so what can we do with all those extra cardboard tubes that are filling up the trash? There must be a million ways to reuse old toilet paper tubes, and green living starts with finding useful ways of recycling seemingly useless waste!
Recycling Toilet Paper Tubes for Crafts: Children love to do crafts, and what better way than to teach them how to do crafts that involve recycling. Start them off at an early age with recycling and before you know it they will be teaching you the ropes of green living.
What child do you know that doesn’t like a kaleidoscope, or a gazoo, or a pretend pirate telescope? These are all fun and simple craft projects that can be created out of old toilet paper tubes. Use the craft time to teach the little ones a bit about recycling to make the entire project a lesson in green living 101. Just think of all those toilet paper tubes that we could have recycled if our parents had taught us the same thing!
Donate the Toilet Paper Tubes: The Girl Scouts are always looking for useful ways of recycling old products and toilet paper tubes are no exception to this hunt. Call your local Girl Scout tribe and ask the scoutmaster if she is interested in the old toilet paper tubes from around your home. If she says she has no use for them, offer some suggestions on how the Girl Scouts could reuse the old tubes such as to start seedlings that could be planted on Earth day…another green living event.
Use Old Paper Toilet Tubes for Organization: These old toilet paper tubes can be used to organize all sorts of items. Hair ties can be place on the tubes rather than letting them get lost all over the house. Children’s artwork from school can be rolled and place inside the tubes to protect it from getting wrinkled when stored for many years to come. Sewing and knitting needles can be stored inside the tubes so that they do not poke you when you dig your hand into the drawer that they are placed in. There are just tons of little ways that these cardboard tubes can be reused around the home for organization.
All those millions of grocery bags that you get from the grocery store each week can be stored inside the toilet paper tubes rather than stuffed in a corner somewhere. Or how about placing your socks inside them to organize your dresser? A special pair of socks that happens to perfectly match a certain shirt or pair of pants can be stored inside the toilet paper roll to keep them separate from all the others so that you can find them easily when needed.
Recycling Old Toilet Paper Tubes: If you can’t find a use for all those old toilet paper tubes, why not place a separate can in the bathroom to toss them into? When the can gets full, recycle the contents at the cardboard recycling center. Most cities have places that cardboard and other recyclables can be dropped off at. Save up all those old toilet paper tubes until you have a trash bag full of them and then drop them off to be recycled. At least they won’t just be thrown into some dump somewhere to take up space and harm the earth!
