# Sticky  What do you do to recycle / reuse?



## Hoodoo Valley

These days, times are tough, and things are getting more and more expensive. Tractor forum asks "How do you go about recycling or reusing resources to either reduce your carbon footprint on the planet, or to simply save money, or being brilliantly resourceful. Your input does not need to necessarily revolve around tractors or agriculture either, but can include your vehicles home, work or whatever. Extend your knowledge or ideas to the community!


----------



## Hoodoo Valley

I built a 3 bay garage for absolutely zero cost using discarded building materials. I used large rocks placed into the ground, to set my post's on, to save myself thye expense of $110 a yard concrete and form tube. I put up pictures of the garage on the forum and here is the link to view them. http://www.tractorforum.com/f155/more-photos-my-free-3-bay-shop-13934/


----------



## kau

We compost a lot and feed scraps to the animals. Cuts our trash to almost nill.

Purchase a lot of building supplies at the local Habitat Restore. Can find great old building materials that need minor work but would cost a fortune now to build with all the detail.


----------



## wjjones

We recycle plastic, cardboard, papers, magazines, etc, and i always try to recycle as much hardware bolts, building materials, etc like TB. I try to stay out of the landfill its exspensive to dispose here $18.00 per yard and its killing the enviroment. I also like going to the restore whenever i can.


----------



## Hoodoo Valley

wjjones said:


> We recycle plastic, cardboard, papers, magazines, etc, and i always try to recycle as much hardware bolts, building materials, etc like TB. I try to stay out of the landfill its exspensive to dispose here $18.00 per yard and its killing the enviroment. I also like going to the restore whenever i can.


Gosh, in light of everything being made in China, or being built cheaper and flimsier and all the while getting more expensive, it just makes sense to restore and keep running, those older impliments, tools and equipment. Not to mention those items you use around the house, or garage!


----------



## leadarrows

This is an article in the local newspaper about me from a few years ago. Things have been slow lately with new housing being our main source of drywall. Hopefully the new deal I am working on with Waste Management to recycle what they bring in will revitalize our production. 



Recycling gypsum


----------



## Hoodoo Valley

That's great! This needs to be done on a larger scale. I've thrown out so much drywall over the years. Drywall was cheap for so many years until lately.


----------



## rsmith335

The carpet in our house will ever be replaced w/ carpet. We put hard wood floors in most of the house and made a big mistake using some nasty carpet, you can't keep it clean by even never wearig shoes on it. Where does all that nasty carpet end up, land fill? We recycle every thing that our Recycle Center will take, they even take paint, tires, appaliances, TVs and my Dictionary, that I reclled by mistake.:lmao:


----------



## kau

I made a pretty decent fence out of bamboo I cut from a local neighbor as well. 5 years and it's still holding strong.


----------



## trs11758

*way of the future using cows...check it out*

this is the link Dean Kamen Discovers Technology of the Future : Videos : Planet Green scroll down to this video: how cow waste generates electricity


----------



## dangeroustoys56

I recycle lawntractors - i buy them cheep/get them free - ones i can rebuild get redone, ones i cant fix are either taken apart for other tractors or i modify them for specific tasks.

I also go to alot of flea markets and thrift stores- its unbeliveable how much useful stuff is there - i found a set of brand new spark plug wires and brake pads - which i plan to use on my lawntractors.


----------



## bignastyGS

I recycle all glass,bi-metal cans,newspapers,cardboard. I also take my old antifreeze to Advance auto parts so it can be recycled. My used oil is taken to a local garage that uses it to heat their building. He has a new almost zero emission burner so that helps out too.All my old metal is given to a friend who hauls it to the metal scrapper and we have 2 food scrap bins outside. About the only things we send to the landfill is non recyclable items like catalogs,light bulbs aerosol cans and things not readily available to be recycled. I even recycled my old TV,computer and phones we had.Hopefully, I am doing my fair part.


----------



## AlbertaPutter

*Rear wieght for L-120*

Thought I would share my rear weight solution with others. A friend was trowing out gym set, plates are 15 lbs each.


----------



## wjjones

We also have a Habitat for Humanity store where you can buy used windows, doors, plumbing, etc, and left over paint, shingles, etc.


----------



## wjjones

AlbertaPutter said:


> Thought I would share my rear weight solution with others. A friend was trowing out gym set, plates are 15 lbs each.


 Thats what i need for my aerator!


----------



## dangeroustoys56

Wjjones: Check out some thrift stores n flea markets ( or CL) first before going to the store- i saw a set of 10-20lb weights from a weight lift set at a local thrift store- they only wanted like $5- 10 each.


----------



## wjjones

dangeroustoys56 said:


> Wjjones: Check out some thrift stores n flea markets ( or CL) first before going to the store- i saw a set of 10-20lb weights from a weight lift set at a local thrift store- they only wanted like $5- 10 each.



I will do just that if the guy i emailed here locally doesnt come through he does demolition, and said he can get some 1" x 12" x 36" steel plate.. I wonder how much that would weigh??


----------



## dangeroustoys56

Eat your wheaties before getting it - and bring a few freinds - itll be heavier then you think- my dad had a 1/4" steel 4x8 sheet in the back of his truck years ago - that thing weighed a ton ( or felt like it ).


----------



## rsmith335

We recycle everything we can. Before my Mother in moved in we usually had two small bags of trash w/a family of three a week. Now we have a bag of trash almost every day, it,s her buying habits, she dosen't buy in bulk, so every little thing has a package and a plastic sack and she want's us to eat on stryfom plates, which I refuse to do, more trash. If you watch how things are packed you can cut down on trash big time. I make a lot of buying decisions on how things are packed. Stryafoam should be outlawed.


----------



## dangeroustoys56

I agree with Rsmith- since we started recycling - the bags of garbage have reduced ( 1-2 per trash day) and the recycling bags ( every other week) are around 3-4.


----------



## rsmith335

My wife dosen't buy Coke in the plastic bottles any more, she buys cans to go along with my favorite cans and we get $ for them. I save the recycle for a quartley trip, look like Sanford & Son. Do you rember that TV show?


----------



## JoeKP

Here is some shelves we built from scrap wood, these were in my old garage, they were about 8-12' tall in some places, and spanned from the front to the back of each side of the garage. not the best view, because the picture was taken to show my newest ladders.









Here are some pics from my old garage, we recycled a lot of stuff from construction sites,a nd either used or stored it in there. it is a bit of a mess because I took these as we were moving out, and cause that garage was always a mess! These are in no order at all, sorry. This was a 3 car wide garage with an addition added across the back,


----------



## Cublover

If it will burn without a lot of smoke, it goes through the woodburner. If it's metal, it gets seperated and sold to the highest paying vendor by element.
If it's not worth my time, it gets 'donated' to someone that has more time. Old clothes go to the mission or Goodwill. Old furniture goes to 'FREE-Cycle', a local website where you can offer items that you don't need or want.
(If there is no free-cycle in your area, START one!) We have 2 here.
My daughter is the moderator of one site and my wife runs the other one! You won't BELIEVE what people want 'hauled away'!!
There has been TONS of stuff carried off my front porch! (that might have ended up in a landfill!)


----------



## Mal_AC

I had 2 metal desk drawers that was in the scrap pile and I wanted to make something to haul my tools around. So I bolted them together, had angle iron welded to the bottom for support and for the wheels. Lastly i put a door on one side and painted the whole thing.


----------



## Hoodoo Valley

Mal_AC said:


> I had 2 metal desk drawers that was in the scrap pile and I wanted to make something to haul my tools around. So I bolted them together, had angle iron welded to the bottom for support and for the wheels. Lastly i put a door on one side and painted the whole thing.


Now THAT'S an awesome Idear! I love this one! Excellent usage of waste material.


----------



## Mikeburg

wjjones said:


> I will do just that if the guy i emailed here locally doesnt come through he does demolition, and said he can get some 1" x 12" x 36" steel plate.. I wonder how much that would weigh??


figured it at 121lbs. I could manage it by my self, but bringing friends along is always more fun!


----------



## bontai Joe

I sell all the scrap metal I can to who ever is paying the most that day. All the #1 and #2 plastic jugs, paper, cardboard, and glass gets hauled to the municipal recycling center about 3 times a year. I stuff it all in my Neon, leaving just enough space for me to sit up front. Since I have been truckless for the past 6 years, I found that not nearly as much stuff follows me home like it used to. I'm real close to being a hoarder. I can't help it, I drive 50 miles each way to work, and see all kinds of goodies along the road. But now it has to fit in the Neon.


----------



## jman9404

rsmith335 said:


> We recycle everything we can. Before my Mother in moved in we usually had two small bags of trash w/a family of three a week. Now we have a bag of trash almost every day, it,s her buying habits, she dosen't buy in bulk, so every little thing has a package and a plastic sack and she want's us to eat on stryfom plates, which I refuse to do, more trash. If you watch how things are packed you can cut down on trash big time. I make a lot of buying decisions on how things are packed. Stryafoam should be outlawed.


Paper plates are compostable, but still require trees to produce. Double edge sword


----------



## Mikeburg

similarities connect... Hi Joe, I drive the same distance and I leave the GMC 1500 at home and drive the van that my previous wife and current wife retired. 2000 Dodge Caravan. I'm getting better than 25mpg from it so the truck sits until needed. I work in a mold shop and they recycle the alum cxans and I take most of the steel scrap, brass and alum block. Dumpster diving isn't out tof the question. A buddy of mine recently got the job of cleaning out a house before it was to be rented. I took down chain link fence and some steel spools, went to the scrapyard and brought some more money.


----------



## Cublover

Mal_AC said:


> I had 2 metal desk drawers that was in the scrap pile and I wanted to make something to haul my tools around. So I bolted them together, had angle iron welded to the bottom for support and for the wheels. Lastly i put a door on one side and painted the whole thing.


Bringing this 'idea' back to the front. I LIKE it!


----------



## jhngardner367

I recycle most of the scrap,from my projects,and all the cans,both aluminum,and steel.
We don't use styrofoam,or paper plates,unless it's a picnic/BBQ,or the like.
I'm also building a waste-oil burner,that I found on you tube,that is real efficient.


----------



## Cublover

jhngardner367 said:


> I recycle most of the scrap,from my projects,and all the cans,both aluminum,and steel.
> We don't use styrofoam,or paper plates,unless it's a picnic/BBQ,or the like.
> I'm also building a waste-oil burner,that I found on you tube,that is real efficient.


By time I get ready to scrap a piece of metal, there is very small pieces in the bucket or it's rusted too bad to re-use!

I always pick up the trimmed off pieces to make gussets later.

The city started curbside recycling in July so we can set the plastic and metal cans out every other week. We compost food scraps or mix them in w the dog food and the yard waste goes to a friends large compost pile.

Sawdust and bark is first used in the dog run, then composted.


----------



## scottcalv

Food is not wasted. Food scraps go to the chickens whose house is lined with brushhog clippings. Chicken poop and waste goes to the garden as fertilizer. And the occasional chicken goes to the freezer. Even egg shells go back to the chickens for calcium. The garden has had so much compost put in it that i barely water in the summer in drought stricken central Oklahoma.

For projects, I always hit the metal scrapyard first. They usually have all the plate steel and angle iron and other stuff a fella can use. 

We are not afraid of receiving and using second hand items, or donating items either.

If at all possible water gets used twice.

There are many other things we do, but these are the most prevalent.


----------



## ftorleans1

We toss food scraps in the compost pile. Anything plastic, metal, paper etc... which we bring home from the grocery stores, etc... goes in the recycle can and down the end of the road for collection. We generate approx. 1 regular bag of trash per 3-4 weeks. The local county goal is 60% recyclable for pick-up. We are at approx. 95%.

As for heavier, larger pieces (old cabinets, wood or metal, poles, brackets, etc...) I try to re-purpose them into more needed uses... Metal scrap waste is laid on the side and approx. every 4-5 weeks, We have scrappers make their rounds and off it goes...

We have a closed landfill roughly 2 miles to our North and I cringe at all the stuff which has been dumped in the ground which could have been re-used. Not to mention most of our area is on well water.....

Old clothes and shoes/boots go to our church for the homeless and less fortunate.

I try to refurbish as much of the older power equipment because most of it was made here and to a much higher standard than most of the garbage coming from across the Pacific....

Most of my lawn/garden tractors are from the seventies... Yes, The newer ones have some bells and whistles that my ole gals don't have but hey, Bells and whistles won't get the job done. Brute power and good old fashion American steel does.........


----------



## Country Boy

I try to save and reuse as much as I can, but lately, I have been purging my saved stuff to get it to a more manageable size. My grandparents all lived through the Depression and they saved *everything* they could. I was just cleaning in the shop tonight and cleaned out an old card catalog cabinet that my grandpa got from the bank he worked at. It was in his basement shop for storage. He had a drawer with "Scrap Metal" on the tag. I pulled the drawer out and went through it and ended up tossing 90 percent of what was in there. It was any and all metal he may have run into. There were tiny little scraps smaller than a bottle cap and old parts off a hand crank drill. I saved the larger pieces of angle and flat iron, and the massive slab of lead he had in there, but the rest is simply junk. I save what I can use in a project without having to spend hours digging through buckets of small scrap pieces to find something. Basically if its 4-6" or longer it gets saved. Much under that and it goes in the scrap bucket. He also had a drawer of gears and parts from any appliance he junked. He'd tear it all apart and save anything he could. Trouble is, when the new appliance broke, none of the parts he had would fit it anyway. Ended up just being a drawer full of junk.

My parents learned the saving ways from their parents, and I picked up on it growing up. Its only been recently that I realized that sometimes saving things just doesn't pay. My time is valuable to me, and if I have to spend a lot of time trying to find something I saved so I can use it for something else, then that's waste to me. I don't just toss it in the landfill, however, but try to recycle as much as possible. My dad has a huge pile out by the road every two weeks when they pick up recycling, and we just sent almost 14,000lbs of scrap to the junkyard this fall from cleaning up around the farm. Two dumpsters and four flat bed truck loads. I'd rather see it scrapped out and reused than rust to pieces behind my shed.


----------



## Cublover

My weakness is for pieces of old cars. That 'mess' under the blue bench in my latest 'post' is pieces I have gathered up for my antique cars as spares. 
That stuff may never be used. If it does get used, that means something broke. If I scrapped it, I might play hell finding another one.
Granted, some of it is too bad to use anymore. I will make that determination soon.
On the other side, 90% of the garage improvements are built off Fred's 'burn' pile!

Even the lights in all the shops were scavenged from someone's 'tear offs'.
Broken furniture (wood) is usually reduced to kindling. 
We put out 1 small 30 gallon bag every week or so. (That's with 6 people living here).
I get buckets of mixed screws and nails from contractors and will sort them just for something to do when I don't feel like bustin hard. Keeps the bins well stocked.


----------



## chris070

*Looking for advise on project on materials around house*

Making garden cart have heavy plastic she'll and want it to hinge to dump off back on a frame over axle any way on how to attach ?? It is a seperate cart garden bed small looking for ideas.


----------



## Groo

I recycled the hoses for hooking up a rear output from Dads tractor to be a 3rd function. Slight damage to the outer jacket, and you can't sell them as a new. Ended up being just about the perfect length. 
Mailing boxes get burned.
Scrap metal gets saved for welding projects.
I did a bucket refurb and digging teeth out of scrap metal.
I'm redoing the old fixed dock as a floating dock with some carwash chemical barrels.


----------



## bontai Joe

bontai Joe said:


> I sell all the scrap metal I can to who ever is paying the most that day. All the #1 and #2 plastic jugs, paper, cardboard, and glass gets hauled to the municipal recycling center about 3 times a year. I stuff it all in my Neon, leaving just enough space for me to sit up front. Since I have been truckless for the past 6 years, I found that not nearly as much stuff follows me home like it used to. I'm real close to being a hoarder. I can't help it, I drive 50 miles each way to work, and see all kinds of goodies along the road. But now it has to fit in the Neon.


 In 2013, I was driving a Neon. Now since Feb. 2014, I've had a full size pickup truck with an 8 foot bed. Although I'm not on the road as much since I retired, I'm back to hauling all kinds of wonderful "curbside treasures". Grandpa would be so proud of me. And scrap metal prices are finally starting to increase. I've been holding my aluminum, because I wouldn't sell it at $0.24 a pound. Today, it's $0.30 and I'll make a trip when it hits 35 cents. Steel is climbing too and copper is over $3.00 a pound. I like to clear at least $50 on a scrap run. My last trip over a year ago, I hauled 118 pounds of aluminum and only got $38 so I've been patiently waiting for prices to climb.


----------



## pogobill

Speaking of that old post regarding a garden cart, I had an old wheelbarrow that was beat up and the tray was split, so I reused the frame work and rebuilt the tray for use around the garden.


----------



## bontai Joe

Bill, that cart is gorgeous! Are you going to finish the wood in any way, like stain or paint? Or just allow it to acquire a natural patina?


----------



## pogobill

bontai Joe said:


> Bill, that cart is gorgeous! Are you going to finish the wood in any way, like stain or paint? Or just allow it to acquire a natural patina?


I just put a good couple of coats of varathane on it and it's good. It lives in the barn, so it doesn't get too much weather!


----------



## Ultradog

This garage had to go in order to add on to our house. The cost to tear it down - labor plus disposal fees - was just too darned much.
It needed paint but was structurally sound.
So I lifted it up and set it on my trailer then hauled it 120 mi to our property.
I just set it on a gravel pad on 2 layers of 2x6 treated lumber.
Now it serves as a tractor shed.
Should last for 10-15 years then I'll pull it down and burn it.
I dislike this new forum software!
Might stop coming here because of it.


----------



## bmaverick

Love that HWY shot of the garage going down the road!


----------



## bontai Joe

I moved an 8' x 12' shed about 3/4 of a mile once down a back road and I thought that was a white knuckle ride. Hauling that size building 120 miles is a true adventure, something to tell the grandkids about. If I had done a drive like that, my sphincter would be loosening up sometime next year.


----------



## 1967Craftsman's

*What do you recycle / reuse?*

This.....









After.....









Post/thread coming soon.....


----------



## homerrichards

I don't have the luxury of buying brand-new items. From time to time, I always watch videos and tutorials in upgrading or making a DIY project. So fun experience!


----------



## bontai Joe

homerrichards said:


> I don't have the luxury of buying brand-new items. From time to time, I always watch videos and tutorials in upgrading or making a DIY project. So fun experience!


I'm pretty much right there with you. I buy some stuff from auctions, stuff that someone else got tired of, but I can happily use.


----------

