How can I reuse or recycle … gone flat inflatables?
An email from Melinda Goodick:
In the course of seasons, we have accumulated many inflatable mattresses and beach/pool toys and also sledding tubes from the winter. They were fun, but once they go flat, the fun is gone. What can we do with them besides their intended use?
I’m presuming by “go flat” Melinda means they haven’t got a valve for refilling with air. We’ve also run into similar “what shall we do with this?” issues in the past with inflatables when they’ve split along the seam and the holes too big to realistically puncture repair.
So, ideas?
(Photo by winjohn)
I imagine if cut into pieces, the material could be used to patch holes in other inflatables, or really for anything you could use a waterproof material for. Maybe you could make waterproof stuff sacks for camping gear…
If they can be cut up, they could be used as weed control for the garden.
Use them as packing material for fragile objects sent in the mail.
For playgrounds, the material can be shredded to create a soft surface for children to play on.
If it’s transparent, like the orange dolphin above, they could be cut into strips for use in interesting children’s art projects, or mood lighting in a teenager’s bedroom, when attached to a cage over a lightbulb.
Those good with a sewing needle could create patchwork raincoats for the kids.
I wouldn’t put plastic in the garden, though, as it’s going to interfere with the natural structure of the soil, and doesn’t decompose, so it tends to get all through the earth, creating dry little spots that roots can’t make use of.
With enough of these inflatables, especially colourful ones, you can cut them up into equally-sized squares and piece them together to make a unique shower curtain (perhaps using epoxy or a glue gun to join pieces together).
Use this same technique to make a tote bag for grocery shopping or going to the beach or a picnic.
you can cut flowers or other designs out of them and decorate some old beach or grocery bags with them - just sew them on top.
Instead of cutting them up why don’t you just fix them and donate them so others can enjoy them in as much time as it takes to make a tote bag or a shower curtain you could have an inflatable good as new.
you could use them to cover kids exercise books.
I also have a lot of these inflammables; I was going to fill them with expanding foam ‘the sort you get from a DIY store’. Has any one tried this? Let us know.
If by chance you have an animal head swim ring of which the animal head is the only piece that survives, you can cut it off at the base of the head leaving a border around it, get a new unused swim ring, cut out an airhole in the new swim ring where on top you can glue and seal the animal head on.Make sure the air holes are on top of each other.
Then you have a new animal head swim ring that you can use.
or you can send them to me for professional repair, or donate them, i fix them up, and pass them on.
I have an inflatable mattress that has a puncture, but i can’t find the place to repair it. The mattress is quite heavy and so not very good for any of the suggestions on this page. Would you be able to repair it, or, if not, do you have any ideas where I could donate it. I live in Cambs.
If able all you have to do is immerse the inflatable in water to see where the hole is. Water bubbles should come out of hole
seen when immersed underwater.
Mark the place after where the hole is and either you can fix the hole, or someone else can repair it.
I have a queen size inflatable mattress that got to close to a heater. We have tried to mend it, but have not succeeded. I would be glad to send it to you if you could fix it or know where to recycle it. I live in Montana and have called all of the recycling centers they told me to throw it the landfill, but I do not want to do that.
Stuff them with cotton to make a floor pillow for children.
We used to mend inflatables (pools, toys, matresses) with those little ready-to-use patchs for mending bycicles tyres. They only cover a round small area. Also, we kept a small piece of a broken inflatable toy, along with soft-plastic glue, to mend other items.
You can sew a pencil case from them.
Like I said before on this website if you have a family sized inflatable paddling pool then why not turn it into a dress alla Karl Lagerfelt
If it’s unrepairable , you could cut the “panels” of the plastic out, and if you have several items of the sort, make some sort of retro anorak maybe? Alternitavely you could always use it for covering stuff to make it waterproof
:)