When you want to start looking for ways to go green and when you want to be creative about it, there are a lot of options in front of you.  We all know that we should recycle and that we should ideally walk instead of drive to where we need to, but have you taken a look down at your feet?  If you are someone who wears flip flops fairly regularly, you know that they wear out within a few months.  These are not the toughest shoes around, but did you know that there are plenty of ways to reuse them?

The problem that we run into when we are looking at flip flops is the fact that they are made out of polyurethane.  Though older flip flops were made out of rubber (and tended to last a little longer as well) polyurethane is a material that you unfortunately cannot simply chuck into your recycling box.  Another problem that you can layer on top of this is that the materials used to make them are derived from crude oil, which makes them extremely difficult to deal with when it comes to the process of breaking down.

What can you do with your old flip flops to get a little bit of use out of them?  The truth of the matter is that ideally you will stop buying them at all.  They are flimsy, and while they are light, you can bet that you will simply be buying another pair in just a few months.  Take a look around for sandals that are made out of tougher materials, whether you are looking for sandals that are woven or made out of leather.  Make sure that you get some bang for your buck when you buy your footwear; look into a kind of sandal that will last you for a while.

One innovative way to use flip flops is to shred them and then use them to stuff cushions.  If you have not beaten all of the padding out of them, they can be stuffed into things like desk chairs or car seats.  When you want to send something, shredded flip flops make a first rate packing material.  With a sharp knife or a good pair of scissors, you can also cut circles out of your flip flops and put them on the bottom of table legs and chair legs; this will prevent them from sliding around and it can even correct the issue of one leg being shorter than the others.  Along this vein, you can also use strips of flip flops to wedge against the edges of small appliances to keep them from shaking.

Consider your flip flops and even the ones that you find lying around on the ground.  What can you do with them, and what are your options going to be when you are thinking about reusing them?  Use your creativity to figure it out.  There are lots of answers to this question, and you never know when you are going to find the one that really suits you.