Green Your Drink -- Coasters

Give a toast to the environment with this week's tips for finding, making, and serving light-on-the-planet beverages.

Tip #4: Find your DIY style

Yesterday we rounded up ways to serve up drinks in glasses made from recycled windshields, bottles, or plain old second-hand cups. Today we're rolling up our sleeves and scrounging for materials that can be transformed into cool, green coasters--instead of being sent to the landfill. (If a DIY project requires too many never-used materials, it probably isn't green.) How about that stack of old magazines? Or the incomplete Scrabble set that since the death of Scrabulous has only made you misty-eyed? Paired with denim or curtain ties and some glue, they can become sturdy examples of reuse--and your creativity. For a list of non-toxic sealant and glaze makers, visit the not-for-profit Co-op America. For the less crafty among us, small picture frames (with the back stand removed) do the job just as well as more labor-intensive projects.

Share your tips and ideas: Have you made coasters from materials found at home? Tell us how!