Nicky has emailed to ask how she can recycle:

Almost 100 kilometres of 2″ wide yellow florists ribbon. Unravelled and of varying lengths – very long to short pieces. Currently in 5 large industrial bags.

Wow, that’s a fair bit of ribbon! My first thought would be to offer it to a local scrap store – they collect unwanted materials from businesses and the like, and redistribute them to local schools, community groups and crafters for upcycling & repurposing. Many will collect suitable materials from businesses too, so it’s worth a shot.

Another option would be to offer it on Freecycle/Freegle – it’s unlikely that anyone would want all five bags but a few people might be willing to take a bag each, for their own craft/redistribution purposes.

As for actually recycling it, most florists’ ribbon is made of polypropylene (plastic number 5), which can be recycled so a plastics recycling company may be interested in it. (I don’t know how much 100km of ribbon weighs – most recycling companies like a minimum of around a tonne) I don’t have any particular recommendations for Nicky though – anyone know any plastic recycling companies around London?

Any other suggestions for ways to reuse it, recycle it or pass it on? Preferably ideas suitable for reusing/recycling 100km of the stuff rather than individual craft suggestions.

(Photo by michaelaw)

We’ve had an email from Ann:

The centre where I work has just rebranded and they’ve made us get rid of all the protective aprons we use for messy art classes as they had the old name on them. I think they’re PVC. Can they be recycled?

I would have thought most textile reclamation companies would accept them – because before actual recycling, they might be reusable by people less bothered about having the correct brand on them. Similarly there may be community groups in your local area that would like them – but it does, unfortunately, depend on how obsessive the organisation is about the brand stuff — I know some places are really annoyingly single-minded about that sort of thing and will send all sorts of new items to landfill to avoid any confusion about their current name/logo.

Could the aprons be adapted or repurposed so they can still be used internally? I’m imagining they’re full length aprons – if the logo is just on the top bit, could it be covered up? Or cut down to make a waist apron?

Or could the non-branded bits of the apron be upcycled into something else? Placemat-style table coverings? Might be useful for messy sessions.

Any other ideas for reusing/repurposing/upcycling them? Or actual recycling suggestions?

We’ve had an email from Paul:

We’ve got an extraction system at our joinery shop which produces big bags of sawdust but we use a lot of MDF and other particle boards so it can’t be used for animal bedding. Do you know how they could be recycled?

We’ve covered wood shavings recycling before but the obvious answer there was animal bedding – lots of people want rid of them and lots of people want it! The MDF dust is a bit of a stick in the wheels though – as Paul says, there are issues using MDF dust in animal bedding — the dust is so fine it can easily be kicked up and lead to respiratory problems.

So what else can be done with it? I did wonder whether it could be pressed into wooden pellets for biomass boilers but apparently the glues/chemicals used in particle board construction may be problematic – an undesirable contaminant. Any other ideas?

(Photo by Vaderluck)

Jeri left a question on the Suggest an Item page:

I work at a beauty salon and we just got new aprons so I collected all the old black ones and all the old polyester smocks that they were going to throw away. They were just putting them in the trash so I rescued them now what can I do with them?

Alison Bailey Smith has already suggested: “Donate to a local art project or gallery or museum that has ‘have a go days’.” which is a great idea. In the UK, you could also offer them to your local scrap store – they’ll probably be able to use them or pass them on.

The smocks they have at the hairdressers I go to always remind me of bat wings or witches’ cloaks so a couple of them could be also upcycled into a fancy dress costume. But Alison’s idea is much better if you’ve got a lot. ;)

Any other suggestions?

We’ve had an email from Tasha:

We are a hairdressing scissors company trying to find a charity we can send old hairdressing scissors too?

If you know of any could you please let me know.

I don’t know of any – does anyone else?

What about charities that collect scrap metal in general? From what I’ve read, hairdressers scissors tend to be make from steel and that’s widely recyclable – does anyone know of any charities that collect steel to raise money from recycling?