Disposable supplies

Paper towels and pointed Q-tips.

Toilet Paper:

         I have used the cheapest available(with no embossed "Softness" quilting on it).For-Tarps, Canopies(Ship Bridges and such).It's actually not hard to work with.The nain thing is this. Make some up but , on a piece of Glass, that way when dry, you can take a straight edge razor and peel it of the glass with no damage.

Cotton swabs and pipe cleaners for airbrush cleaning, lint-less paper towels because all cloth rags get repurposed until they start to disintegrate, wet/dry sandpaper, sanding sticks, toothpicks to apply CA. For mixing resins and epoxies, I use wooden coffee stirers up to tongue depressors. Aluminum foil to line mixing containers for the same materials. Microbrushes for various tasks, the sticks often repurposed as mixing sticks.

For small mixing or containing tasks, I use sewing thimbles. Epoxy a large washer to the tip to keep them from tipping. Easy to clean with cotton swabs.

Ages ago I made a permanent steel stiring stick by flattening one end of a welding rod, filing and sanding the surface smooth. It also serves as a transfer tool. I also made one out of an old brush's nylon handle that I use to mix paint in the airbrush cup. It won't scratch the cup or damage the needle, and it's easy to wipe clean.

I save the plastic and rubber end caps from anything that comes with them to use as mixing containers. Often easy to clean, sometimes even of hardened epoxy or resin.

I don't so much recycle, as repurpose. When it can't be repurposed, it gets recycled if possible.

I seem to go through a lot of pipettes and plastic shot glasses along with the previously mentioned stuff.

I think cost was more the issue,rather then green.

Hmmmm....we use toxic chemicals to assemble and finish plastics.   I'm not sure scale model building is exactly enviro-friendly Whether using disposable or reusable mixing tools.

Cotton swabs, toothpicks and my left-over business cards used to mix 5 minute epoxy on. Use 1 section of a card and cut it off and dispose of it. Had a box and a half (150) left over when I retired in '98 and still have about 30 to 40 left.

Stay safe.

Jim 

Tanker-Builder

Hi, Missileman2!

       I use many of the things you have mentioned, Plus! The packages of Rags you can get at Harbor Freight. I use them for model scrubbing and Brush cleaning rags. Unlike many folks, I use a three step process for cleaning brushes, being as how I use Regular Enamels not Acylic enamels.  There are some friends that keep me supplied with McDonalds coffee stirrers and such things.

 

Toothpicks and wood coffee stirring sticks I don't worry about- very biodegradable.  Same with the cotton.  I am assuming the shafts of q-tips are rolled paper-is that true?

I just stopped using some allmust unusable toilet paper- way to thin.  There were three remaining rolls.  Found on utube lots of videos on uses of toilet paper for crafts, including making water for dioramas.

Little plastic communion cups for mixing small batches of paint.

Interdental brushes for cleaning the airbrushes.

Artist wax for holding small parts for painting, good stuff.

Maybe you can make some suggestions

Disposable options are at the same time more polluting. You should think about using reusable modeling tools and other reusable accessories, this way together, little by little, we will help not to destroy our planet.

Hi, Missileman2!

       I use many of the things you have mentioned, Plus! The packages of Rags you can get at Harbor Freight. I use them for model scrubbing and Brush cleaning rags. Unlike many folks, I use a three step process for cleaning brushes, being as how I use Regular Enamels not Acylic enamels.  There are some friends that keep me supplied with McDonalds coffee stirrers and such things.

Q-tips,toothpicks,post-it notes,small wooden BBQ skewers,pipe cleaners,dental brushes

For a glue palette I use those fake advertising credit cards- the plastic ones.  They do not absorb even the thinest CA glue.

Also, even many 0f the advertising half-page cards now are plastic coated, so they work pretty well.  I use that stuff for drybushing.

Paper towels, and Kleenex.  Tons of it.

Post-It Notes.  I use those for setting my airbrush pattern, mixing epoxy, and little drops of super glue.  They're great for all of those things and leftover epoxy and super glue can be removed from the work area and disposed of before I have a chance to get my fingers or hands into them on accident.

Sanding sticks. They tend to lose their specific grit within several months of use.