We went out for a Mexican meal the other day (mmm, mexican food) and while eating a giant pile of guacamole (mmm, guacamole), we had one of those wonderings about what must happen to the many, many leftover avocado stones. From that, our wonderings went onto other fruit stones - plums, peaches etc.

Obviously, they can be planted to grow a new fruit plant or composted (although they’d take a good while to break down) but aside from that, are there any fun ways to use them?

Avocado stones are usually beautifully smooth so could they be made into (GIANT) beads? Any other suggestions?

(Photo by tpacific)

[20] comments

We’ve had an email from Stephanie:

Glastonbury killed my tent! The zip is busted, torn away from the door flap, there is a rip in the ground sheet and everything is encrusted with mud!

But aside from the mud, everything else is ok. I’d love to reuse the sticks and fabric if possible but I don’t know what they can be used for.

I’d be tempted to keep it (or offer it on Freecycle) for spares and repairs of other tents - or making a kite from the cloth.

Any other suggestions though?

(Photo by pixelstar)

[11] comments

We’ve had an email from Andrew Whittington:

These are the industrial carrying bags, usually made from a plastic woven material with four strong carrying handles for a crane or fork lift truck to move large quantities of building materials such as sand and stone. These are being seen more and more delivered to domestic homes, and are seen as a disposable item and the companies are not interested in having them back.

At the moment I have one in the garden and i’m using it as a tempory compost bin until I can make my own, however the plastic is starting to rot into tiny pieces, any other ideas what I can do with it?

I’ve been seeing these about more and more too and would probably go for the compost thing or using the material for hanging basket (etc) lining - but I’m sure the latter doesn’t make best use of the bags and would probably have the same rotting problem. So any ideas?

[9] comments

We’ve had an email from Neil Williams:

I’ve just moved into a new house and when I finally hacked through the nettles at the bottom of the garden, I found a set of old car tyres.

They look like they’ve been there for a good few years so probably aren’t any good for a car now and I know some companies make them into mouse pads and stuff but I was wondering what I can do with them myself.

My dad used to use tyres (AKA tires) as planters for growing veg - a single tyre became an instant raised beds for lettuce or herbs or a few stacked on top of each other became deep bins for potatoes. I guess the stacked ones could also be used as a compost heap too.

Any other suggestions?

(Photo by dragon_art)

[34] comments

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)

[14] comments