on recycling and reusing

At the moment I am thinking a lot about the concept of cleaning my studio, recycling and reusing. And I seam to stumple over a lot of posts on other blogs or groups that do deal with it, too. Of course there are quite a couple of intressting groups on flickr:

" Use what you have" http://www.flickr.com/groups/usewhatyouhave/

"Tips for recycling and Reusing" http://www.flickr.com/groups/recycle/

"Pretty Organized" http://www.flickr.com/groups/prettyorganized/

"Odd balls knitting and crocheting" http://www.flickr.com/groups/90592512@N00/

"Ban the Bag" http://www.flickr.com/groups/banthebag/

This one even led me even to make a pledge! Here it is:

I PLEDGE TO:

1. Refuse to accept disposable bags in shops, markets, supermarkets and other food outlets. Instead I will...
2. Bring my own - use reusable bags for all my food shopping. and I will
3. Ask at least one friend or colleague to make this pledge.

I hate plastic bags and how they destroy everything, but it is really hard to avoid them!! I will now make a big sign on my door, so I will be reminded ALL the time to take a fabric bag with me, so I will not need to take a plastic bag anywere, besides I do not like to be a walking advertisment for all the companys were I do my shopping...;-)

Do you know this site? http://www.wearewhatwedo.org/
I think they have great ideas and they helped me to see that it does make a change what I do!!! Go and have a look! because we are what we do...;-)

On one of the groups someone asked about what to do with wine corks...here are my ideas for it:

I like to use them on the pots on my balkony....they make them lighter and are a good way of having a trainage layer for your plants in the bottom of the pots!!!
You can use them for stamp carving or as a base for stamps.
You can make curtains for summer doors ( you know those ones that keep the flys out but lat you walk through)
and you can make little table decorations with them. Look here:

I think the most imortant is that we think about doing something and do as much as we can...if everyone does that that will help a lot!!! And dont tell me we can not do anything...a lot of little things do make a lot of a difference!!! Do you have any good ideas what you could do to make a difference?? Please tell me!!