Recycling Rubber Elastic Bands

May 10, 2010
Stefanie Gabrych Fraser

Recycle your rubber bands - Stefanie Gabrych Fraser

What do you do with all those rubber elastic bands that you bring home or the postman uses to secure bundles of mail that are shoved through your mail box?

Here are a few fun and functional ideas to reuse and recycle rubber bands:

Using Rubber Bands in the Kitchen

Keep food fresh. Simply wrap a rubber band around a bag of chips, salad, or baking flour to seal in the freshness.
Open jars. When a twist top lid won’t budge, wrap a rubber band around it several times to give you a better grip.??
Secure your casserole lids. When bringing a casserole dish to a potluck dinner, secure the lid to the base with a couple of wide rubber bands.
Anchor a cutting board. Wind a rubber band around each end of a chopping board to prevent slipping.
Wrap some rubber bands around a chilly or slippery glass to give little fingers a better grip.
Childproof kitchen and bath cabinets. Stretch a few rubber bands tightly between the left and right cabinet knobs to lock them in place.
Hold floral arrangement together. Slip a rubber band around the stems of a bouquet before placing it in vase to hold the flowers upright.
Candle wax. Wind around a candle to stop wax dripping down onto a surface, or put it at the top and stop waxing running down the candle. This makes it last longer.

Using Rubber Bands to Organize and Tidy Up Your Clothes

Keep clothes on hangers. No more worries of camisoles and sundresses slipping off hangers when you wrap the ends with rubber bands.
Keep thread from tangling. To prevent tangled thread in your sewing box, wrap a rubber band around the spools to keep the thread from unraveling.
Expand the waistband on your pants, or skirt. Loop the rubber band through the buttonhole and fasten to the button. This can give you an extra inch.

Fun Ways to Use Rubber Bands

Play ball. Make a colored ball out of a hoard of rubber bands.
Jewelry. Slip a half-dozen or so brightly colored elastic bands of varying widths over your hand and party away. No one needs to know that they came with your asparagus.
Decorate Easter eggs. Arrange rubber bands in a pattern around hard-boiled eggs, then dip them into dye. Remove the bands when the eggs are dry.??
Wrap a gift. Use multiple colored rubber bands instead of ribbon to add modern flair to a small present. (Particularly handy when you can’t find the tape.)
Party time. If you have elastic bands in different colors wrap them around the stem of a wine glass so guests will know which is their glass.

Miscellaneous Uses for Rubber Elastic Bands

Easy Way to Read the News. Wrap a rubber band around your index finger a few times when turning the pages of your papers.
Protect your furniture and remote control. To protect your fine furniture from scratches and nicks, wrap a wide rubber band around both ends of the television remote control. You'll be protecting the remote too as it will be less likely to slide off a table and be damaged.
Make a holder for your car visor. Wrap a couple of rubber bands around the sun visors of your car. Slip all your miscellaneous receipts, parking stubs, etc. under the rubber bands until you have time to sort them out.
Paintbrush wiper. Stretch a rubber band around an open paint can from top to bottom so it crosses over the opening just above the paint. Wipe the excess paint off on the rubber band instead of getting the side of the can all messy.