Knitting, Crochet and Crafts

Recycled Crafts

Recycled Craft Project Ideas for Earth Day and Every Day

By Amy Solovay

New craft supplies aren’t always the best craft supplies. Instead of shopping for your craft supplies, why not try reclaiming, recycling, “upcycling” and re-purposing older materials to use instead? Here are some ideas for easy recycled crafts (also sometimes called “upcycled crafts”) you can make at home. Some of these ideas are child friendly, and some of them are ones that adults are likely to enjoy the best success with.


These are all fantastic Earth Day craft ideas, but you don’t need to wait for Earth Day to do any of them. They’re also fantastic everyday craft ideas you can use for saving money and making responsible use of the planet’s resources — which is win-win for everyone.

Recycle Stained T-Shirts With Tie Dye

You Can Cover Up the Stains on a Worn White T-Shirt by Tie Dyeing Wavy Stripes to Cover Up the Stains.
You Can Cover Up the Stains on a Worn White T-Shirt by Tie Dyeing Wavy Stripes to Cover Up the Stains.

Do you, or any of the kids in your family, have t-shirts that are too stained to wear any more? If so, don’t throw the t-shirts in the trash; give them new life by tie-dying them. The following tie-dye articles will help:

Make Rag Rugs, Rag Bags, Rag Jewelry and Other Fabric Crochet Projects

If you have clothes you'd like to upcycle, you could reclaim the fabrics and transform them into rag balls to use in fabric crochet. Pictured here are some fabric crochet project ideas. There are free patterns available for all the projects you see pictured here.
If you have clothes you’d like to upcycle, you could reclaim the fabrics and transform them into rag balls to use in fabric crochet. Pictured here are some fabric crochet project ideas. There are free patterns available for all the projects you see pictured here.

You can cut old curtains, sheets or clothes into fabric strips to use for all kinds of projects ranging from jewelry to trivets to tote bags to rag rugs. Check out this page about fabric crochet projects to find free patterns for making all the projects pictured above, plus others.

Bottle Cap Crafts

Crochet Snowflake Trivet: Free Pattern and Tutorial
Crochet Snowflake Trivet: Free Pattern and Step-By-Step Craft Tutorial

If you have any soda drinkers or beer drinkers in your family, you might be wondering what you can make with bottle caps. There are lots of possibilities. Check out this list of bottle cap crafts for ideas. Pictured above is an easy, beginner-friendly snowflake trivet you can make using metal bottle caps. The basic idea: You make little crocheted pockets for the bottle caps and stick them inside, and then you stitch multiple pockets together to make a trivet that you can use for protecting your table tops or countertops from hot dishes. If you want more detailed, step-by-step instructions for doing this, check out the FREE snowflake crochet trivet pattern HERE.

Recycle Broken Objects With Mosaic

Floral Mosaic Tiles Hand Cut From Vintage Homer Laughlin Plates
Floral Mosaic Tiles Hand Cut From Vintage Homer Laughlin Plates

If you’d like to try making mosaics, you could buy expensive mosaic tiles that are designed just for that purpose. On the other hand, you could clean out your cupboards and put any chipped or cracked china to good use instead. Click here for instructions on how to cut mosaic tiles out of old dishes and plates. I’ve used these techniques to keep hundreds of broken dishes out of the landfill.


Broken china isn’t the only acceptable material for use in mosaic art. You can also use broken jewelry, small toys, beach glass, pebbles, shells, and other stuff. You can learn more in my guide to mosaic art, HERE, and my guide to mosaic supplies, HERE.

Make Handmade Paper Out of Junk Mail

This Collage Art Features Handmade Paper, Spin Art, and Cubes of Resin With Tiny Silk Flowers Embedded Inside Them
This Collage Art Features Handmade Paper, Spin Art, and Cubes of Resin With Tiny Silk Flowers Embedded Inside Them

Everybody accumulates junk mail. It’s easy to toss it all in the trash, but that isn’t an environmentally-friendly solution. Even better: recycle it! You can recycle many different papers into gorgeous handmade paper.


Handmade papers are useful in many different types of paper crafts, including collage, mixed media art, card making, printmaking, altered art, altered book making, and scrapbooking. Click here for instructions on how to make handmade paper.

Knit and Crochet With Plastic Bags or Other Found Materials

Free Pouch Pattern: An Easy Project for Starting to Crochet Plastic Bags
Free Pouch Pattern: An Easy Project for Starting to Crochet Plastic Bags

Yarn and crochet thread are fun materials to work with, but they aren’t your only options for making lovely knitting and crochet projects. You can upcycle many different types of materials for use in knitting and crocheting. For example, you can use plastic mesh produce bags to make dish scrubbies.

Many knitters and crocheters cut up plastic bags to work with. One popular buzzword these days is “plarn.” You can click here for more information about how to make and use plarn. See Also: Crochet Plastic Bags.

Upcycled Napkin Rings Made From Pull Tabs

Upcycled Crochet Napkin Rings: Free Crochet Pattern
Upcycled Crochet Napkin Rings: Free Crochet Pattern

If you have pull tabs left over from canned sodas, canned pet food or canned anything, you can use them to make these intriguing — and useful — napkin rings. Free instructions are available here on this website.

Turn “Hurt” Books Into “Junk Journals,” Scrapbook Albums or Other Art Projects

Bits & Pieces Mixed Media Art and Scrapbooking Album Featuring Upcycled / Recycled Dictionary Pages, Chipboard Embellishments and Original Photographs
Bits & Pieces Mixed Media Art and Scrapbooking Album Featuring Upcycled / Recycled Dictionary Pages, Chipboard Embellishments and Original Photographs

If you have any books with damaged spines, missing pages, or other problems that make them unreadable, you can still salvage the pages to use in craft projects. Here’s an example of a scrapbook I made from a damaged dictionary.

Reclaim and Upcycle the Fabric From Thrift Store Clothing

If you enjoy quilting or fiber art, this article contains ideas you can use to reclaim fabrics.

Alter and Upcycle Your Thrift Store Finds

If you head to the closest thrift store, you’re likely to find all kinds of interesting objects that can be altered and upcycled. One of my favorites thrift store finds was a wall art piece that I altered. I used to have pictures of it online, along with instructions for how to make a similar piece. I’m not sure where those photos went, but if I ever find them, I’ll update this page to add them.

So there you have it: Those are my suggestions for recycled crafts and upcycled crafts you can make if you’re hoping to save money, save the planet, conserve resources, make the most of the things you have on hand already or celebrate Earth Day in a sustainable, ecologically conscious manner.


I invite you to return to this site often for more craft tutorials, project ideas and inspiration! You can make sure you keep this site on your radar by signing up for my newsletter and community at Substack. .



Basic subscriptions are free; I send out regular newsletters to let my subscribers know about new craft articles and tutorials as they are posted. I also share details about the craft projects I’m working on, and invite my readers to share their projects, too. So there is no need to feel like it’s just you, crafting all alone at home. I’d love to have you join us! You’re invited!!

By Amy Solovay

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About the Author:

Amy Solovay
Amy Solovay

Amy Solovay is a real, live, human content creator and educator who holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics from Sweet Briar College; she has also earned a separate Associate of Arts degree in textile design from FIDM LA (The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, Los Angeles). She is NOT a robot and does not use artificial intelligence (AI) to write book reviews or articles for this website.


Amy learned to craft as a small child, and she still enjoys crafting techniques all these years later.


I'm excited about this book, Delicate Crochet by Sharon Hernes Silverman! I am super proud of the 2 patterns I contributed to this pattern collection. I hope you'll check out the fingerless gloves and the beaded necklace I designed for this book. Thanks for taking a look at them!
I’m excited about this book, Delicate Crochet by Sharon Hernes Silverman! ! I am super proud of the 2 patterns I contributed to this pattern collection. I hope you’ll check out the fingerless gloves and the beaded necklace I designed for this book. Thanks for taking a look at them!

As an educator, Amy Solovay used to teach in-person college courses in trend forecasting, marketing and surface design at California Design College in Los Angeles. Nowadays she uses online platforms for sharing her knowledge about textiles, crafts, current color trends and current design trends.


This page was last updated on 12-18-2024.