Remember VHS tapes? Not quite as ancient as 8 track cassette tapes (don't know what they are? Geesh, I'm old) since VHS has only been around since about the 1970s (though supposedly the first VCR was invented in 1956 and was the size of a piano). [One chap recalls paying $1600 for his first machine in 1979...atrocious when you consider that it would have taken about 4 months of minimum wage work to purchase the machine, that 2 L of milk was $1.28 and a Malibu Barbie cost a whoppin' $1.94.]
A few days ago a friend decided to flawlessly purge her home of any trace of her now-teenagers' adolescence...in doing so she showed up at our doorstep, Santa-style, with two black garbage bags brimming over with VHS tapes. It is not an oddity that people show up here with bags of goodies - mostly childrens' clothing for our "two tunics trading" that collects and disseminates them free of cost. And being blessed with the ability to rapidly scrutinize and eliminate our house barely avoids being showcased on A&E's "Hoarders".
But two bags of VHS tapes?
So, of course, this got me thinking: what DO people do with VHS tapes nowadays? Yes, yes, some of us still have VCRs...but what of those who don't?
And here's what my "research" has determined: thrift shops and freecycle rest high on the list of riddance suggestions but there are much more creative ways to recycle these polystyrene, polyethylene and polypropylene puppies.
- "Green Disk: because good planets are hard to find" will recycle technotrash into new disks (you only need about 500 pounds of it!?). www.greendisk.com
- Scarecrows. Yep, you read that correctly: scarecrows. Simple concept: yank out the ribbon, hang it on your trees, scare away birds.
- Still trying to formulate a unique Hallowe'en costume? [Don't ask me what it is exactly but it's all formed from the tape inside VHS that we used to get hollered at for curiously fingering out of its case.] http://en.wikinoticia.com/culture-science/strange-inventions/119267-the-wizard-of-oz-and-its-gallery-of-characters-reimagined
- Have a wedding shower fast approaching? Or, wait: Christmas is less than 2 months away and who ever has sufficient bows for gift tops? http://textiles4you.blogspot.ca/2011_11_01_archive.html
- And one more suggestion: did your grandma, in all her loving patience, teach you the skill of knitting or crocheting? Bingo! Nothing can stop you from accessorizing your look with VHS-tape purses and handbags http://www.myrecycledbags.com/2008/03/23/vcr-tape-ribbon-sling-bag/
So, when you see me sporting some crinkly black clutch or dressed as some sort of ebony king of the jungle drenched in oozing perspiration you will know: I am just doing my part for the environment, folks! VH what? VH fashion...VH hip...VH yikes...
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