It’s time to choose your favorite of the hundreds of practical, creative, helpful, and fun ideas on how to REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE.   The top five submissions have been carefully chosen, and are listed below for your consideration.

After you’ve read each of the top five, select the one that your think is the best idea.  Your vote must be sent in a  Personal Message to Gamester by Thursday, April 21 by 11pm. Please note: Guesses sent in by any other means–email, feedback, PM to any account but Gamester–will not count and will be discarded.  Each member may submit only one vote. The Personal Message should include only the number of the story and the title (for example, #1. Book Swap ).  Please do not include any other information.

The winning story will be announced Friday on the blog and in the Message of the Day on the www.PaperBackSwap.com homepage.

The grand prize winner will win 10 credits & $5.00 PBS Money, and the second, third, fourth, and fifth place ideas selected will win 3 credits each.

NOTE:  Comments to this post will not be considered a vote.  Please send a PM as instructed above.

#1. Book Swap

Have a book swap! :0) I am an elementary school teacher, and I kicked off my “Caring for the Earth Unit” (& culminated my Dr. Seuss unit) by having a book swap with my kindergartners. Students could bring in 1 or 2 gently used books that they no longer read/wanted. I gave them a ticket for each book they turned in (the kind that can tear apart, from the dollar store), on which I had put a Dr. Seuss/ book swap label. I laid out all of the books the children brought in. As the children turned in a ticket, I tore off the smaller half, they chose a new book, & I gave back the half of the ticket that had the label. We had talked earlier about ways to recycle/reuse the ticket, and agreed that a bookmark would be the best idea. We also talked about how the children could have their own swaps with neighbors, friends, etc. (but I cautioned the children to check with their parents first!). Now my students all have “newish” books to read & “newish” book marks to use, and they had A LOT of fun!

#2. Plastic Shrinkies

Reducing, reusing, and recycling is just a part of life for me…so it was hard to pick which idea to share. I like to take #6 plastics and reuse them for shrinky dinks. You can find this plastic sometimes on disposable drink lids, clear disposable salad containers, strawberry containers, etc. Just cut out your shape (they will shrink quite a bit!), punch a hole in the top (optional) and bake on a foil covered cookie sheet in the oven for 2-3 minutes at 350 degrees. They will curl up and flatten back out, just like store bought shrinky dinks.

#3.  Mailers

Reuse your PBS mailing envelopes.

The simplest way we can be more GREEN that we all can use is REUSE the mailing envelopes that your PBS books come in. Using the mailing instructions and address label is a great way but if you can just reuse the packaging that books mailed TO YOU come in until they are worn out we’ll all be more green.

Compost everything. Even newspapers can be shredded and used for compost. Worms love it. Mix the shredded newspapers with your kitchen scraps (egg shells, potato skins, carrot tops, etc. just no animal products) with a little garden soil and you’re good to go.

PBS is the BEST recycling plan their is. I love books and love PBS… share, save, recycle with PBS.

#4. Re-purposed Books

I have an awesome recycling project for you, this project not only has to do with books! which is our top priority here am I right? If you ever have an old book that you dont need anymore, aside from putting it on PaperBackSwap, you can make it into a cute project! You can make hiding places for special objects by cutting out a square in the pages, make a cute scrapbook out of an old book, or simply make an intricate mantle piece to present. You can do all these things by using paper-mâché to attach the pages together. All three of these projects are fun to do with your kids, they’ll surely enjoy using paper-mâché, and the best part is, it’s easy to clean up. (Note: a hardcover book is the best for all three projects)

For a cute hiding place: Open your book to a middle page, and use an Exacto Knife to cut out your opening for your secret compartment. Be sure not to cut every page, only cut a hole deep enough for your object, if you cut too many it wont look like a real book anymore. Once your book is cut just paper-mâché each page together from the back forward. Making a hard casing for your object! Be sure to let your paper-mâché fully dry.

Making a mini Scrapbook: Instead of paper-mâchéing all pages together, simply bunch 20 pages or so at a time and paper-mâché together only those 20 pages, after drying your individual 20 page clumps you can then decorate them just as a scrapbooking page!

Mantle piece: This project is just about the easiest, simply open your book to the center, and paper-mâché the pages starting from the back forward. When doing this project, i actually painted my pages gold to create the look of a golden book, it sits proudly on my bookshelf open and inviting, I have received a lot of comments for this particular project.

#5. Re-purposed Yarn

I love to knit but can’t afford the better yarn …. like cashmere, merino….
I go to several thrift shops and look for high quality sweaters that are made from real good yarn. I take them apart and then unravel them. I gently wash the hank and dry it with weights hanging off it to help take out the waves.
I make shawls, scarves, hats, and mittens out of beautiful soft yarn for my family and myself.

I save money and recycle — reuse sweaters that sometimes are very ugly but produce beautiful yarn.
Sometimes I combine yarns to make even more beautiful yarn.