A few weeks ago I was at the HQ of BrightBox, a Ruby-on-Rails hosting company/ISP, and they’d just taken delivery of a huge new computer server thing (apologies for getting overly technical there).

Anyway, all the hard discs for it (and there were loads) were packaged up separately so there was a mountain of packaging by the time they’d got it all sorted.

As well as tonnes of corrugated cardboard and the foam packaging stuff I’ll feature next week, they got loads of these little solid moulded plastic trays - dummy drives - and needless to say, my first thoughts were “what a waste!” and “how could I recycle them?”

They would be absolutely ideal underneath plant pots if there weren’t two little holes at one end. I guess I could plug them with something and perhaps paint them at the same time to make them nice for under plants - but even as prolific as our spider plants are, I think I’d still be hard pushed to use them all.

So any suggestions?

We’ve had an email from Nicole asking what she can do with a big bag of lanyards from a conference that has already taken place.

I actually thought about them (but forgot again) a few weeks ago because we’ve got a few floating around from a conference we went to last year (shoutout to LUGRadio Live) - they’re great for hanging your nametag around your neck while you’re there but afterwards…

Actually one of our friends uses an old one to hang his keys around his neck (his trouser pockets are always holey, disturbingly holey) and another friend uses one on a USB key so it doesn’t get lost as easily - but that’s only a few uses, possibly only good for my disorganised friends.

Any other suggestions for Nicole?

(In case you’re not familiar with them, lanyards are usually just a loop for webbing, like a wide shoe lace, with a metal clip or ring at one end. They’re usually about 50cm in length.)

We’ve had an email from Amanda:

All 3 of my children are involved in paper routes here in Canada & as such we are left with 50+ plastic strappings twice a week. Our town says they are not recyclable & have to add to my already restricted garbage output. Whilst we are pushing the paper company to change the way they deliver & bundle the papers, we need to find ways to keep these strappings from the landfills.

I’ve never been enough of a morning person to have a paper route and I initially thought Amanda meant cable-tie-esque bindings but Google suggests they’re more like the straps I’ve seen around flat-pack furniture or the like - quite tough strips that are impossible to tear by hand but are reasonably flexible lengthwise. It is quite possibly polypropylene but I wouldn’t swear to that (just putting two and two together after reading a number of websites).

I’ve got a bit of a thing for weaving stuff like that so would be tempted to make them into a bag or something - but anyone else got any other suggestions?

We’ve had an email from Emma, asking:

How can I recycle the spine from a spiral-bound notebook?

We’ve already covered plastic spines so let’s assume that Emma means the metal ones - because, well, I’ve got a couple lying around from old reporters pads after I’ve recycled the paper part.

A lot of pads are like the plastic ones - almost like teeth of metal (if that makes sense) rather than a spiral - and I suspect they’ll be harder to reuse because they can’t just be uncoiled.

So suggestions?

(Photo by mcconnell6)

We got some computer hardware bits delivered a few weeks ago and the box was filled out with those inflated cushion things.

When we’ve had them in the past, I’ve always thought “I wonder how I can recycle th- oh, they’re compostable corn starch type plastic. Great!” but this current load is regular plastic so won’t be ending up in my compost heap. They’re still better than polystyrene beads or other old school packaging though.

The plastic seems to be the same as supermarket carrier bags so I suspect they can be recycled in the same places as those.

But what about reuses? They seem to be holding their inflatableness quite well so I think one lot will be used as a bath pillow. Other suggestions?

(Apologies for the bad photo - it turns out it’s quite difficult to photograph things that are clear… If you’ve not familiar with them, they’re essentially inflated plastic bags. The ones we have are about 5×15cm (2×6inches) each and are in rows of 3 or 4 joined along the long edge.)