Archive for May, 2006

How can I reuse or recycle drinks cans?

An empty crushed beer canAside from glass bottles then newspapers, one of the first things to hit my recycling radar was learning to tell the difference between steel and aluminium cans for recycling purposes. I think there was a Blue Peter Christmas appeal to collect aluminium cans or something, so for a good few months I watched with glee as magnets slid off the side of cans. In the name of children’s television related charity, I perfected the art of crushing cans or at least getting them wedged onto my shoes so I could pretend I was a tap dancer. Ah, happy recycling days…

Reusing them though, that’s a bit more tricky. I wonder if recycling of them is so commonplace that people don’t think to reuse them – or if they’re only recycled because there aren’t many reuses for them… Any suggestions?
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How can I reuse or recycle old mattresses?

Old mattresses in a yellow skipA suggestion from the skip down the road:

“Hi, I’m the big yellow skip down the road that you keep eyeing up every time you walk past me. The people at the house next to me must be having a clear out or something but no, sorry, that cool chair that’s been in the garden for a couple of weeks isn’t in here: they must have taken it back into the house. You should so get the broken standing fan out though – the white metal bits that cover the blades will make good hanging baskets: come and see me tomorrow and I’ll make sure they’re waiting for you.

Anyway, the reason I’ve acquired an email address and developed some sort of fingerish appendages so I can type said email, is to check if you, or any of your dear readers, know what can be done with the two mattresses that are now nestled inside of me. You see, they’re quite knackered and a little manky so I doubt they’d be good enough to give away to actually sleep on but if anyone has any other suggestions, that would be great.

Thanks, love and hugs,
Skippy the Skip

PS. Call me!
PPS. Also, no asbestos.


What’s greener … to buy local non-organic veg or ship in organic veg from around the world?

Vegetables on a chopping boardMost of the vegetable stalls at our local farmers’ market don’t advertise themselves as organic (possibly just because they’re not Soil Association-approved organic) – but most of the labelled organic veg in the supermarket has been shipped half way from Africa if not further afield.

I suspect this is a better-for-self versus better-for-planet question but I’m not sure – since the pesticides etc on the non-organic veg are damaging the environment in countless different ways anyway.

We can’t always go to the wholefood/organic shops in the city centre that offer local, organic produce (albeit at a price) and my own organic garden veg are currently just seedlings being eaten by slugs, so what is the better alternative?


How can I reuse or recycle coconut shells?

Coconut shellsFor reasons that seemed fun at the time, a few of years ago we halved and scooped out some coconuts. We clip-clopped up and down the street and around the house Monty Python style for a bit then the shells went in the cellar. There they stayed for a year or so then we found them, clip-clopped some more and then cellared them again.

Now, after a third bout of clip-clopping for the amusement of local children, the empty shells are now living in the garden and are really begging to be reused to save them from involvement in more repeat attempts at “humour”.

Any suggestions of things to do with them?

(Wonderful picture by minmax, c/o sxc.hu – because ours were too soggy to photograph well)


How can I reuse or recycle old compact discs (cds)?

Compact DiscsA few years ago, when everyone and their auntie was trying their luck during the ISP goldrush, we couldn’t open the front door for the amount of AOL cds coming through the letter box each morning.

Thankfully, it’s all slackened off a bit now but we still have stacks of old CDs to get rid of: data ones that have burnt wrong, ones that have been scratched and, on the rare occasion we still get them, those damn AOL-et-al cds.

The myriad of coasters we already own (3 different sets, 4 in each set) far exceeds the amount of coasters we use on a day-to-day basis (zero), so employing CDs to do the job – which is often the suggestion – isn’t really going to be that useful to us.

So any other ideas? What other uses are there for them?
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