Up-Cycled Recycling Bin Handles

Or ... "They moved my dumpster into a new time-zone".

I shouldn't complain. My apartment complex is awesome. The grounds are super clean. The maintenance men are SO nice. And they have single-stream recycling, meaning I don't have to separate my paper from my plastic and glass. I'm super spoiled. I was also spoiled that my mail box and dumpster were about 100 feet from my door. I barely had to put shoes on to take out the trash.

Until now. They decided to consolidate the dumpsters and recycling down in one of the lower lots, right by the front entrance, since "everyone drives their trash to the dumpsters anyway". Grrr. What's the point in recycling if you have to DRIVE it to throw it away? And since we're uber hippies and hardly drive AT ALL anyway, it's not like we can just add "drop off recycling on our way out to work", since work is via bike. But we're the minority, so I'm not going to bitch about it. Much.

Fine. I'll walk the 1/4 mile there and the 1/4 mile back to bring my trash and recycling. In the middle of winter. God help us the first blizzard, though, cause I'm not doing it then. Or when it's raining. Or too hot. Yeah, this isn't going to work out very well.

But the real problem is that our bins are a pain to carry. They're just paper bins from staples.

Nothing to really hold on to. And when it was only 100 feet to the bin, it was fine for the dog food can or oatmeal canister to fall out. I'd just grab it, balance it back on top, and dash. But I'm not dropping shit all the way down to the lower lot. This thing needs handles.

For different reasons (see: Christmas gifts, later this month), I had my electric drill out and was putting holes in a rubbermaid tub. Eureka! I can put holes in the bin and put fabric handles through the holes!

Step 1: drill a hole in each side of the bin.


Step 2. Cut a fabric strip long enough to thread through one hole, up over your shoulder, and into the hole on the other side. We have a bunch of these HUGE reusable bags from the bike shop, and they seemed to be the right size. Plus they were pretty clear in the instructions ...





I was able to cut just the center panel of this bag from one end to the other, and then cut it lengthwise to make two long straps, and they were perfect. I think they were about 45" long.




Step 3: Thread the ends of the fabric through the holes.




Step 4: Here's the tricky part ... pull the fabric end through the hole and fold it back against the rest of the strap. Sew the end of the fabric to the body of the strap so it won't come undone. I imagine if you are a knot wizard, you could knot it in a way where it wouldn't come loose. I couldn't. I pinned the end and sewed across it and back a few times, propping the bin up on some books to keep it even.







I also sewed the strap in half length-wise to give it some strength. I did one AFTER I had secured the ends to the bins, and I did one BEFORE I secured the ends to the bins. Both were a pain, and involved a lot of bin maneuvering, but they look nicer and I think they're stronger.






And now look who can help!?