Way before being environmentally aware was cool, Arab parents have been reusing, reducing, and recycling for years now.
To some it's called being cheap, to others it's being thrifty, and to you fancy ones it's called up-cycling.
Whatever you want to call it, we all love to hate it. Here are 8 ways your Arab parents are low key environmental hippies.
1. They save plastic bags
Which they then reuse for everything - garbage bags, carrier bags, storage bags, the list is endless.
2. They save ketchup packets from fast food take away
You haven't bought a bottle of ketchup in years. Why throw away perfectly good ketchup just to buy more ketchup in a different container?
3. When buying items from the supermarket, their reusability is strongly taken into account
Tomato paste in a disposable box or tomato paste in a glass jar? I think we all know the answer to that one.
4. They store all sorts of things in cookie tins and sweet jars
Every Arab family has a cookie-tin-turned-sewing-kit, a sick joke if there ever was one.
5. Food is never thrown away, ever
Unless moldy, that food is not going in the bin. Infinite permutations of leftover meals for days on end.
6. If your parents have a green thumb, any container can be used as a pot
A shortage of pots is a real problem for any avid gardener - but not if you're Arab.
Nido cans ... to the rescue!
7. Clothes you have outgrown are never thrown out
They're either given to a younger family member, given to the needy, or demoted to a cleaning rag.
8. Unwanted gifts are always regifted
"If you don't like the present, don't open the box! We can give it away to somebody else who might like it!"
Re-gifting is not a matter of if, it is a matter of when.