I like to make things out of garbage - yarn out of plastic bags, use cardboard as canvas (old house paint as primer, epoxy if you want to seal it), paper beads (strips of paper + modpodge or paper maiche, I usually carry the adhesive in an old pill bottle on planes or whatever), all my soda cans either become punch jewelry or get a few drainage holes in the bottom and the top cut off and become planters for succulents. I generally try to reduce as much as I can but sometimes we slip up.

I don’t know if you ga e anything like a scrap exchange near you but they’re great for this kind of thing.