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Are you Bent About Your Window Screens? Trash to Usefulness!
I wrote an article asking Green Talk readers “How Would You Reuse Articles that Would Ordinarily Go in the Trash?.” I have only received one response, although a good one. My reader suggested using yogurt cups for planting seedlings.
I decided to make a page entitled “Readers’ Reuse Tips” on my website for multiple responses. Who has not cleverly reused an item in their house? Thinking I would be flooded with responses, no one responded.
Hoping to generate more comments, I started thinking about items I put in the trash and how can I reuse them. My whole way of thinking changed about trash. Could I use the spiral on the notebook I just recycled for something? Could it be used as a tie to bind something together? Hmm.
So, over the last couple weeks I have a chance to put my writing where my hands were, and came up with two suggestions that I will be posting this week. Without further ado, here are my latest trash to usefulness suggestion:
Bent Screens
I have a hate/love affair with my screens. They are flimsy and can bend easily making it hard to put them back into the windows. Some of the screens came with bent edges, or torn sections near the edge of the screen. The window manufacturer has been more than accommodating and has provided me with new screens. First, I thought I would use them as a barrier around my vegetable garden by turning them on their sides to prevent small animals from invading my garden. However, I could not figure out how to tie them together and make sure they did not fall over with the wind. If anyone has a suggestion that is handy, please let others know. I still think it is a good idea.
I also have unusable patio door screens, and thought I could use one of them as the entrance to my veggie garden. How would I attach the screen to the poles? That idea did not work. I still refused to throw out the screens.
One day, the light bulb went off and I had a use for these screens! I planted a ground cover of curly thyme in my vegetable garden. The curly thyme was delivered to me bare root (i.e. no soil) so they were very fragile and I had to get them into the soil as soon as possible. This was not the first time I tried to plant the thyme. Last time, I did not follow the instructions to keep the plants out of the sun for a week. I thought if I planted in May because the sun was not so hot, and I watered them regularly, the plants would be fine. Well, this did not work and most died.
I still wanted the ground cover and tried again. This time, I would cover the plants with my screens. As you can see from the picture above, I have raised beds so I positioned the screens on top of the beds to be cover for the thyme. It has been a week, and the thyme looks good. I have my fingers crossed that it will take this time.
For those of you that do not have raised beds, you could prop them up on rocks and secure them with ground posts. 
Gardeners’ Supply sells earth staples, which are ground anchors. Inserting them in the screen may cause a small tear.
Next spring, I am going to tie together two of the smaller screen and use them to shade lettuce or other early spring crop that I will grow in the summer.
Do you have any suggestions for reusing screens or any old item in your house? Look for my second suggestion how to reuse the plastic center from your delivered pizza on my next post this week…
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on October 31st, 2007 at 10:44 am
Hi, Great site.
I live north of Toronto Ont.
I get a big furnace filter once a year and hate having to throw out the old one. I pay a dollar a bag for garbage and it would kill most of a bag itself. Recycle here is free.
The recycle folks only take obvious paper or plastic or metal. The filter would have been rejected being 24″ x 30″ x 6″ thick of cardboard cloth filter and wire.
I dissassembled it and found it to be a few yards of accordianed filter paper attached to a thin chicken wire lining.
The chicken wire can be used for any application needing a large screening, like sifting sand for rocks or as a rodent retarding liner for under porches or around lawn structures.
The paper folds small and can join the recycle though it could also be reused as packing or cushion material for moving day or as a garden bed or part of a small tree winter cover.
If you keep a computer on the floor some cut shapes could be used to cover various holes in the cover so cooling air would be filtered from dust bunnies. Just be sure the fans are up to the task and buy an extra one for the back wall of the computer if needed.
I often cut plastic bottles for funnels and for bird feeders.
I have earth floor in a root cellar in the basement (old house). I save plastic shopping bags stuffed and tied in more plastic bags. These I scatter on the floor to help prevent moisture build up and to offer cheap insulation.
I’m using less bags lately how ever since we try to remember the cloth bags more often.
I’m using old kitty litter to repair my driveway and roadside when rain washes the gravel away. I scoop the obvious dirt out and it joins the wet recycle or the composte, depending on time and energy.
I shred a lot of paper in these identity theft times and as a result have fire starter for the back yard fire pit.
That some I can think of.
There’s always more though.
on November 13th, 2007 at 11:07 pm
This is one of the best responses I have ever seen. You are the king of creativity! I would love for you to come back and post more ideas. (You could contact me by my contact form and you can send me pictures that I would gladly post of some of your recycling ideas.)
Boy, could I learn from you. I am going to reprint your comment in a post because it just blew my socks off.
I also heard you can use kitty litter to dry out paint in paint cans so you can safely throw it away. Have you heard that one? Thanks again for visiting Green Talk and come back to visit soon! anna
on February 10th, 2008 at 5:18 am
This is not as cool as the one above but we were still proud of it. My fiance and I committed to buying as much as possible from the bulk bins at the grocery store including spices. It seemed counterintuitive to use the plastic bags provided so we started looking around the house for alternatives and realized old prescription medicine bottles would be perfect.
N. & J.’s last blog post..Prescription bottle? I think not….
on February 10th, 2008 at 9:07 am
I love this idea. Readers, see N & J ’s last post on their blog, http://badhuman.wordpress.com, where they talk about using reusing prescription bottles. I would love a picture of a bottle filled with spices. Can you send me one? Just go to my contact page and I will email so you can send me a pic. Keep adding to my reuse ideas. Hope to see your comments around my blog soon! Anna
on August 21st, 2008 at 9:28 am
[...] ways to use “stuff” that would ordinarily go in the trash. (Check out how to reuse torn screens and straws.) So, do you have a favorite reuse story to [...]