A woman and her husband accidentally broke three ceramic mugs, and unfortunately, her city didn't recycle ceramics, leaving her searching for ways to avoid sending them all to a landfill.
Luckily, she posted a video on her Love of Earth Co. YouTube channel with one idea and asked her audience for more, and they came through.
The scoop
Love of Earth Co. fixed one of her mugs and used one of the cracked mugs as a plant pot. For the last one, she wrote, "I have ZERO idea what to do with this one … HELP."
She captioned the video, "How do you upcycle a broken mug?"
Users flooded the comments with a seemingly endless number of valuable ideas for her broken mug, from pen holders to candle holders to toothbrush holders.
One user suggested, "If you break it into pieces, it is perfect in the bottom of your plant pots for drainage. You put them in the bottom of your pot and put your soil in."
Another user had a more artsy idea: "Break it up and make a mosaic tile!"
How it's working
Whether creating art from the broken mug or using it for organizing, it's better than just throwing it away when possible. According to the Washington State Department of Health, some ceramics contain toxic chemicals from glazes, such as lead, barium, or cadmium. These particular ceramics must be upcycled or disposed of in hazardous waste.
If you didn't create the mug yourself, you likely won't know for sure, so it's best to find another purpose for it.
Zero Waste Washington also suggested donating it to a place that can repurpose it, like community centers or schools.
It can be fun to devise creative ways to use damaged items at home. When it comes to mugs, if one has a motivational saying or depicts an image that makes you happy, it could be great as a toothbrush holder, as one of the users suggested.
It's a better alternative to ending up in a landfill and can prevent possible problems. For example, beyond taking up space and emitting methane into the air, government agencies in England found that unmonitored landfills leaked toxic chemicals into the drinking water.
These fun ideas don't just work for mugs. You can also repurpose your containers and packaging.
What people are saying
A few users had similar ideas of breaking up the mugs to use them in another way.
One user said, "Good minds think alike!"
The mosaic option might have been the winner since it's so doable, even with a highly damaged ceramic item. That outcome, in particular, can also be fun, as another user made clear, saying they "love smashing the item down into bits."
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