Andy (previously of the cat litter and bulk building material bag questions) has sent us a clever idea regarding those popular after dinner mints:

Here’s a suggestion form another Greeny site I visit. After Eight sleeves and the box they comes with, now used as a filing box for seeds.

Great idea - the little, slightly-waxed sleeves are perfect envelopes if you have small quantities of seeds - it’s just shame they’re black so not easy to write on to label up which seeds are where (then again, I’ve got a silver pen for writing on black paper knocking around somewhere so that would work).

I imagine the little ridges in the box could also be useful for holding slide collections - if people still have slides in this age of digital cameras and Powerpoint.

Any other suggestions though?

(For those not familiar with the choc’n'mint treat, they’re flat, thin chocolates with a mint creme filling. They come in boxes of about 25-30 and each chocolate is individually wrapped in a gusset of black waxy paper, about 4cm (2inches) square with an open top. The cardboard box is rectangular with (removable) ridged padding inside and the chocolate stand upright in the box, held in place by the ridges.)

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Christmas and all that seems a distant memory now but we’ve had an email from Alison, saying:

We took our decorations down last week and some of the long chains broke. They’re the shiny foil type - can they be recycled?

Now I’m not sure whether they’re actually made from foil - I suspect it is more likely to be plastic but I’m not sure. Anyone know?

If they are made from plastic or are even just part plastic, I doubt you’ll be able to recycle them with your normal foil/cans/metals recycling so any reuse suggestions?

When I was a kid and our decorations used to get too scratty to use in the living room etc, I used to snag them to use in my bedroom instead so maybe keep them for kids to use next year - or shorter lengths could also be used to decorate a cubicle or the like at work.

You could also take advantage of the fact they’re light and for want of a better word, fluffy, and use them for protective packaging when sending items through the post or around presents in gift boxes.

Any other suggestions?

(Photo by bugdog)

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They probably still look nice and festive today but in a couple of days, they’ll be starting to look a bit past it - so what are the options?

Most local council tips provide Christmas tree recycling these days - take your tree along to your local household waste collection site and they’ll shred it for use as ground cover or the like.

But what if you can’t get it to a tip? Some councils pick them up from your home if you ask for collection but how can they be otherwise used around the home and garden?

We’ve covered tree branches in general in the past but are there any pine tree specific things?

(Beautiful photo by soultga)

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Hark the herald angels sing;

“it’s easy with the Recycle This guide!”

(Photo by LuisFico of a very cool tree made from light)

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We’ve had an email from Megan McDermott, saying:

I just put my Christmas tree up this week and was disappointed to find that three strands of lights aren’t working. I hate to throw them in out, but what can I do with them?

It’s early in the festive season but I suspect a number of people will be hitting the same snag around about now. I’ve seen Christmas tree lights used in all sorts of non-festive places - but they’ve all been working.

Given the amount of little bulbs and wire involved, it’s probably one of those things that is, unfortunately, cheaper to replace than to fix these days - but has anyone got any trouble-shooting tips to get them working again?

But if that doesn’t fix the problem, what other options are there to reuse them either in all or in parts?

(Photo by singhajay)

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