How can I reuse or recycle old compact discs?
A 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?
Best Suggestions
- Reduce: Only burn new discs when you really need it to – use reusable USB keys or internet storage where possible instead.
- Reuse: Use them as modern day scarecrows to deter birds from your veg plot.
- Recycle: While not common, recycling facilities do exist – some details are below.
- See the comments below for more suggestions and ideas
(Photo by bruno-free, c/o sxc.hu)
I need to remind you all that burning or melting any plastic item puts out carcinogenic fumes (cancer causing) so try not to melt or burn plastic. I knew a person that burned plastic in a trash pile (I don’t like doing that anyway) but he ended up with lung cancer and died. He didn’t smoke, it
was the fumes from all those plastic jugs melting. PLEASE, PLEASE, don’t melt plastic if you can help it. Try other ideas. Also letting your pet play with the discs might be okay, but also remember they can break and if your pet swallows a piece of the broken disc it could end up killing them.
So recycle and reuse but be careful HOW you recycle and reuse!
In the article, ‘burning’ refers to writing data onto a CD, not actually burning the CD with fire. That’s just silly! :)
Discs have good reflective properties similar to amirror. If you want to experiment
form numerous parabolic dishes with a long focal length and glue discs to the inside then direct the dish directly towards the sun you can provide a concentrated beam onto a small area. Anyone interested in solar energy and with a knowledge of physics please email to develop.this idea
When you have collected about enough, thread them on a minature fluo’ tube. Light the tube with the appropriate circuitry. The light shines through the edges of the discs and makes a super-geeky table lamp for your computer desk!!!
I have done it and it works! You can also use a small string of christmas tree lights with less effect.
I recently discovered that a common toilet detergent with corrosive properties is able to completely remove the foil side of most cd and dvd discs rendering the data useless and leaving a relatively see-through cd like the one you get on top of a spindle behind.
All you need to do is leave the discs in this detergent for a few days and then use a brush to remove the loose pieces. I decided to discard the detergent with the dyes and metal parts of the cd’s in a plastic sealed bottle after I’ve used it as much as possible.
I’d love to hear some other ideas.
For years, I have been reusing CDs at Christmas time by putting colorful string or yarn on them and hanging them from a tree outdoors to create a very festive Christmas tree. I encouraged my neighbors to add theirs also and it became quite a spectacle. Adding lights makes them even more reflective. Sometimes I glue two together to cover the writing on one side. People come and look at it all holiday season long.
I also use them as gift tags on packages since it is easy to write TO: and FROM: on them and it looks pretty too.
I saw an idea for using them instead of bird scare tape. I am about to go hang some CDs on my grape vines and plum tree. The reflections look like fire to birds and scare them away. There is always plenty for our feathered friends too so I will allow them to eat the fruit after a few weeks.
Hi. I live in Texas and have a blog where I design and think up ideas to make crafts. My daughter was throwing out some old CD’s so I came up with a way to recycle them into a wonderful gift idea. The recipient won’t know it has a CD inside unless you tell them it’s there. Here’s the link.
http://linda-allfreepatterns.blogspot.com/2010/07/recycle-cds-giftstorage-bag-sew.html This one is a draw string gift bag.
http://linda-allfreepatterns.blogspot.com/2010/07/cd-recycle-make-cake-decoration.html
This one uses 2 CD’s up and they are small cakes that look like the real thing. They can be used as table decorations or as gifts.
http://linda-allfreepatterns.blogspot.com/2010/07/cd-recycle-gift-basket-sew.html
This one uses one CD and is a gift basket.
Hope you enjoy. Linda
You are so creative, Linda. I especially enjoyed the draw string bags.
There are many interesting ideas for creatively reusing CDS. Just look throughout my group here on flickr:
PET Bottle and other Plastics Recycled Creativity
http://www.flickr.com/groups/1447554@N22/
Flickr is free to join…there are millions of artists working with recycled materials from around the world on flickr.
Does anyone have ideas on how to recycle empty pill bottles?
Yes, there are lots on the pill bottle page – http://www.recyclethis.co.uk/20070413/how-can-i-reuse-or-recycle-plastic-pill-and-vitamin-bottles
I hang mine in my fruit trees to stop the birds from eating the fruit. It seems to work very well. but I saw someone on TV making a birdbath with cement and lining it with broken CDs. It looked very pretty, not kitsch at all, probably doesn’t scare the birds because it’s stationary!