Reusing bottles

Lately I need to protect my toothbrush from house lizards / house geckos. I did not want to buy a toothbrush holder with a cover so I looked around my house to find materials that I could use to make one. In the end, I made one using two PET bottles and the lid of a small container.

I started off with two PET bottles (only one bottle is shown in the photo below), a small container and a scissors.

Cut each bottle into 2 parts. I only need the bottom part. Then cut a hole in the middle of the lid of the small container.

Result: a toothbrush holder with a cover. The lid of the small container holds the toothbrush in place inside the bottom part of the 1st bottle. The bottom part of the 2nd bottle acts as the cover.

Reuse a phone

A few days ago, my cell/mobile/hand phone started having a will of its own. I was keying in a text message and it interrupted me by sending the incomplete message to a random number from my address book. I pressed the cancel button a few times to no avail and then it proceeded to send blank text messages to a few other random numbers so I had no choice but to switch it off. I suspect this erratic behaviour is due to a "sticky-keys" problem.

This 4.5 years old phone is a hand-me-down phone from my spouse so I will not be sending it to be fixed. Instead I am now using another hand-me-down phone from my brother which has many other functions that I do not need as I only use my phone for sending text messages so any phone in working order will do. Let's see how long this 3 years old phone will last me.

P/S I love using hand-me-down items because in this way, I feel that I am doing my part in adhering to the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" motto.

Bye k618i! Hello HTC Kaiser!

Shopping companions

They are my 3 green reusable shopping bags. Since I want to go green, it is not enough for me to just use reusable shopping bags - they must be green in colour too.

Nah, I am only joking, not using plastic bags is a good enough move. The government is also doing its part to encourage us to ditch those plastic bags by getting retailers to stop giving out free plastic bags on Saturdays in their nationwide "No Plastic Bags on Saturdays" campaign. Unfortunately the results are not all positive. I overheard this conversation between a couple on a Saturday.

Man: Oh, I think our rice at home is running low, let's go and buy a new pack.
Woman: No, today is Saturday. They will not give us plastic bags. Let's wait till tomorrow.

I guess there is still a long way to go before it becomes a habit for people to use reusable bags. Especially when reusable grocery bags need to be washed carefully and regularly to minimise bacterial contamination.

My green companions

Goodbye sofa set

"Pertubuhan Amal Seri Sinar" (www.recyclecharity.org) came to pick up my sofa set (2+3 seater with a coffee table) at noon yesterday.

As the year is coming to an end, for the 1st time in 11 years, I suddenly realised that I seldom sit on my sofa so I do not need a sofa set. Therefore I decided to call the recycle-for-charity-organisation to come and collect them.

If you have wearable clothes, shoes, bags, toys, newspapers, magazines, plastic, glass, aluminium, electrical items and usable furniture that you do not want anymore, you can give the items to this organisation. They provide pick up service for bulky items like furniture and electrical goods (free of charge). The number to call is 03-9021 1888 or you can email them at serisinar at recyclecharity.org .Currently they are also raising funds for Study Aid 2011.

Above: My sofa set which will not be replaced because the living area (foyer) is easier to clean when it looks like the photo below. \\(^v^)//

Cycle, Recycle

Nowadays, I do not simply throw away things that I do not want. I sort the unwanted things into a few categories and then send them to recycling centers nearby. Before sending them, the items need to be cleaned, dried, arranged and tied neatly.

The types of recyclables accepted at Alam Flora Recycling Centers are:

Newspaper
Magazines
Cardboard, Boxes Brown Paper
Computer Paper, Black & White A4, A3, A1
Mixed Paper - Books, Comics, Envelopes, Junk Mails, Colour Papers
Beverage Cartons
Aluminium Cans - Soft Drink Cans
Steel, Tin - Food Cans (Sardine), Beverage Cans (Milo), Milk Cans
Glass Bottle, Jar - Food Jars, Beverage Bottle
Mixed Plastic - Shampoo, Detergent & Food Containers, Various Plastic Products
Monitor
Printer
CPU

Recently I just sent one batch of boxes. I must encourage myself to keep this up so here's wishing myself "Happy Recycling!"