Dear Editor,
I’m trying to retrain myself to avoid purchasing and throwing away single-use plastic items. Here’s something I’ve come across, that makes a good second-use of a plastic item — rain barrels, made from re-purposed olive shipping containers. These are heavy duty plastic, nearly indestructible*, free of harmful chemicals and well set up to be rain barrels with a bug-and-dirt screen, an overflow and a spigot to connect a garden hose.
A rain barrel can save you money and time in several ways. The water that runs off your roof can be harmful to the foundation of the building. Eavestroughs will direct that runoff into a barrel, where it can be used to water the lawn or garden – anything other than to run back into the basement.

I’ve arranged for several barrels this year and I only need a few, so I’ll have some to distribute but I encourage anyone who has access to a truck, to buy several and get as many as possible into service.
*I did discover that they can be destroyed, by not draining one completely in the fall – the frost ripped it open. So now, it’s good for storing junk, because you don’t want water to stand in a junk barrel, so that’s a third use for that barrel.

Robert Wills
Thorne, Que.