One of the ways to produce less waste and reuse things instead is to recycle old linen.
When your towels start to wear thin, or your pillow covers have lost their freshness, there are ways to reuse them. These are some of our favourite ideas:
- Cut up towels to make kitchen drying cloths
If your towel is still in fair condition, you can cut it up for drying cloths. By sewing the edges you can make it look like a proper dish cloth and prevent the edges from fraying.
- Turn them into rags for cleaning
You shouldn’t need to spend money on cleaning rags. You can use old sheets, towels, pillow cases and even clothes. And one towel or sheet will produce many rags.
- Make a bed for your pet
A folded blanket placed in a pillow cover can make a comfortable bed for your cat or dog. If you are handy with needle and thread or a have a sewing machine, you can cut duvet covers in half and add a zip or buttons so you can remove the cover for cleaning.
- Use for a picnic blanket
This works especially well with themed duvet covers, the type that children love. Instead of throwing them out when they are dated or your child has outgrown them, use the duvet with its cover as a picnic blanket.
- Keep them in a box for building blanket forts
Who doesn’t love a blanket fort? Children can spend hours in a make-believe kingdom created from some blankets, sheets, furniture for props and a few clothes pegs. And if you don’t have a child, no-one has to know you have transformed your lounge for a weekend of Netflix and popcorn in the fort.
Why should you recycle old linen?
It is a sad fact that 80% of discarded textiles end up in landfills all over the world. These take up to 200 years to decompose fully. The less each of us contribute to this problem the better. So do your bit and see what you can re-purpose and recycle in your home rather than getting more stuff.