How can I reuse or recycle … spiral book bindings?

Mon 26 Nov 2007

How can I reuse or recycle … spiral book bindings?

Binding We’ve had an email from Barbara Patrick:

I have a whole box of these plastic spiral book binding thingies at my work and no idea what to do with them. I would love some creative crafty suggestions. I live in United States and our currently recycling only takes 1’s & 2’s. Our print shop doesn’t want them. ugh! help!

If they’re still in (re)usable condition, maybe a school (or the like) would be able to use them in their reprographics department? A print shop might worry about them being in less than perfect condition but a school probably wouldn’t be as fussy.

If I had access to one of the whole punching machine things, I’d probably use them for making scrap paper notepads but if not, I suspect that would be a lot of hassle and I’d just use a bulldog clip as I usually do instead.

Any other suggestions?

(Photo supplied by Babs)

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I use them to help young seedlings stand tall in my vegetable garden, cutting them to the right length as needed.

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I offered them to a photocopy shop. As they were in good condition, they accepted them to reuse.

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You can always give office items to SCHOOLS. In the US, anyway, they are always in need of extra supplies of all kinds.

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My daughter is partially sighted and her school goes through a lot of these. All of her books have to be photocopied, blown up and bound using these. So I know any school with a special needs unit would love to have them. She goes to the Charles Dickens in Broadstairs, Kent. Or sent them to the Royal School for the Blind in London.

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I’ve had some success using them to attach fabric to small PVC pipe for quick and dirty stage backdrops. Just wrap the fabric around the pipe, and put a section of the binding over it.

It’s not super strong, but it’s easy to remove, and doesn’t damage the pipe or the fabric.

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