'Five ways to reuse those empty horse feed bags and do your part for the environment'

Five ways to reuse those empty horse feed bags and do your part for the environment

Recycling is everyone's responsibility. It is our individual way of helping the environment and not being wasteful. There are plenty of ways you can recycle around the barn and do your part to reduce waste.

Feed bags are actually handy for a variety of uses. if you are just throwing your bags away, you could be missing out on some great money saving ideas. Think about it...if a bag is sturdy enough to hold fifty pounds of feed and be thrown all over the place, it is sturdy enough to be used for some other purposes.

Here are some handy ideas for reusing those horse feed bags:

• Trash Can Liners - Have you priced a box of garbage bags lately? Feed bags are heavy enough to be used for trash cans, especially the woven plastic kind. They even withstand wet items being thrown in, since the plastic is waterproof and pretty tear proof too. They are also handy to use for gathering plastic and glass for recycling and you can use them over and over.
• Magazine Collectors - How many magazines or old catalogs do you have laying around the house that are headed for the recycling (or heaven forbid, the garbage) center? Feed bags are really handy for storing piles of those vet supply catalogs, barn supply catalogs, and all of the publications you receive frequently but do not archive. The heavy material will not rip and tear even with the weight much higher than a regular paper bag or plastic bag could hold.
• String Collectors - How many times do you wish you had just one of those pieces of baling twine handy? Now, instead of throwing them away, you can use an empty feed bag to collect them. That way, you will always have string aroung when you need it. Heck, if you save enough, you could braid it into a mat to wipe your feet on outside your barn office.
• Hay Carriers - When you are traveling to a show or just a short trail ride and want to take a bit of hay, you can easily store two large flakes of hay inside the empty fed bags. You can throw the bag in your dressing room, or the back of your truck, and it won't leave you with pieces of hay everywhere when you take the bag out. (My husband complains about me leaving hay pieces in the bed of the truck every time I go somewhere!)
• Floor Mats - You can use the feed bags to put on the floor of your car or truck to protect them from your muddy boots. (Again, a constant source of irritation for my husband!). Just think of the vacuuming you will miss out on!

There are lots of other ideas for using those empty feed bags, if you just look around you. My uncle uses some of my empty woven plastic bags to hold his kindling wood for his wood burning stove.

I sometimes use one to cover up bridles and reins I am not currently using. I just poke two small holes in the top and use a piece of baling twine to tie a loop that goes around the bridles and reins at the top and goes up through the hole and hangs on a bridle peg. Keeps the dust from having a field day with my unused tack.

As I mentioned, it is up to all of us to do our part to respect our environment. Think of some more creative uses for your empty feed bags!

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