One simple thing we can all do to be kind to the environment is reduce the amount of trash we produce. It is revealed that almost 85 percent of the 70 pounds of textiles the average American purchases each year ends up in landfills. This is an environmental disaster that can be easily avoided because clothes and fabrics are so easy to recycle and reuse. As a matter of fact, you can make a big difference by doing some very simple little things around your house.
With a little imagination, some cosmetic changes such as a dash of paint, an embroidered motif or an altered hemline can transform a dress. Pieces that are beyond salvage can be used to make baby clothes. A father’s jeans will easily yield enough material for a son’s pair, and a skirt can be used to make a smart blouse for a little girl. Old dresses can be simply closed at the bottom and hung on hangers to make laundry bags. If the bottom is closed by Velcro or buttons, clothes can be easily removed for washing by opening them. The legs of old jeans can be cut off and the bottom sewed close to form the bag. The pockets on the jeans can remain, as they will be handy to keep wallets and keys. Strips from the leg of the jeans can be used to shape the straps.
Pieces of cloth can be pasted on a paper background to form art work for the children's bedroom. Exquisite embroidery from anotherwise outdated dress can be cut out and framed. Create hand puppets from old socks. Buttons removed from shirts can be glued on to make the eyes. Cotton T-shirts can be turned into kitchen wipes or polishing cloths since they are very absorbent.
You can donate your old clothes to charity, but be careful of donating not very shabby clothes, because these can truly help people who need it. Used clothes, such as plankets, footware, can be reused also by giving them to homeless schelters and different church organisations. Childrens clothes, toys and different needments can be donated to orphanages.
Junk mail envelopes – Cut them up and reuse them as scratch paper.
Shoe boxes can be used as file boxes and be stored under your bed.
Old tires – These make great tire swings in the back yard!
Did you know that you can send old sneakers to Nike and they will use the rubber soles to make new playgrounds? It is advisable to buy sneakers with high quality and which have practical design, in order to withstand each kind of weather and training. You also have to consider with footware maintenace requirements. Purchases, which find little use and appear to be not quality should be avoided. 
You should be motivated by material, economy and maintenance when constructing and refiting. Use the sun to heat the house placement and oritation when planning window. For one demand, people use a lot of nonreproducible natural resources and their duration of use is very short. After discardion it takes 100 years for a plastic ware to decay and for cardboard ware to turn into soil several years, because both of them are covered with wax. Although they are advisable to use on garden parties and birthdays, because they give the pary solidity and dignity. It is environmently friendly to wash he diches in a basin not under running water, so that the water waste can be possibly low.
Some facts about reusing items:
Clothes manufacturing is a big international business, which often results in big negative environment effects and in useage of low-price workforce.The most common type of clothes are cotton and polyester.
Cotton is a very comfortable material but its manufactoring is full of defalcation. To produce one kilogram of cotton, you need 10 000 gallons AKA 20 bathtubs full of vater! To make the matters even worse, you need to count on the usage of plant poisons direct and indirect effect on the environment. A big amount of cotton is produced in countries with cheap workforce. 23% of all cotton ,that grows in the world, reaches to Chinese factories.
Synthetic clothes material polyester, which of are fleece clothes made of, is turning from year to year more popular. It moulders in the dump at least 500 years, because it is oil based.
In local eco shops you can find clothes, that are made of ecologically grown cotton, wool, flax, silk or cannabis.
Clothes made of cannabis are notably environmently friendly , because the plant grown better than the weed. All kinds of weeding work nad care are redundant.For the fields, cannabis is like a relaxation. It's growing is environmently friendly and easy.
It is also wise to use flax textile, because you don't need to process it with pesticides. But it's processing into softer fabric is remarkably harder.
The list of possible uses for old clothes is endless. This is a versatile material that only needs to time and imagination to ensure that it does not go wasted. Recycling fabric is small way towards a safer environment.
Kadi Mägi, Kerli Reinart, Elin Ligi, Karin Köster 12A
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