That’s Not Trash!

Trash management on a boat includes a lot of “re-purposing” — why buy a new container when you can use something that was otherwise destined for the trash?

Those empty plastic shaker bottles – like the one for shredded Parmesan cheese above – are great to reuse for stuff that doesn’t come in such nice containers . . . but should.

In particular, we “re-purpose” these for powdered cleanser that comes in foil covered cardboard containers with holes in the top.  Those have two problems – the holes in the top (you can cover them with tape, but the powder makes the tape not want to stick well) and the foil doesn’t keep serious humidity from penetrating the can and turning the powder into a rock-hard blob.

I just cut the top off the cleanser and pour it into the cheese container.  While the container isn’t super strong plastic, it’ll last several years.  And the snap-down top actually fits quite tightly and my experience is that the contents stay powdery instead of turning to concrete.  I’ve never had one pop open on its own.

I use another one for what I’ll call “cleaning” baking soda (in other words, not what I use in cooking) – I like to keep a shaker of it for use in the sinks and in the head in general – it provides a bit of scrubbing power along with absorbin odors.

I’ve also found that they work well to slip a “sleeve” of Ritz-type crackers into to take on a hike.  While the shaker top is unimportant, the plastic bottle keeps the crackers from getting crushed in the day pack.