Well, less of a “reuse/recycle”, more of a “what else can eat them?” question…
Our cats are becoming increasingly fussy eaters in their old age. They’ve always been pretty fussy but now they’re teenagers, it’s getting worse – and we end up with a lot of mostly full boxes and bags that they are just not interested in eating.
We’ve swapped cat food with friends and neighbours in the past but all our felines have reached that certain age now and either had their teeth removed or as fussy as ours, so there is less swap potential. The supermarkets around here collect food for local animal shelters but I suspect they’ll only want sealed boxes/bags to be sure nothing has been tampered with.
I’d rather not compost them as I suspect the smell will attract undesirables to the heap but I also don’t want to just bin them. So any ideas?
Categories: household, items, kitchen
Posted by louisa
on 15 February 2010
8 Comments →
Ahead of Valentine’s Day on Sunday, I thought it might be worth linked to some of our old posts relevant to this time of year – making homemade recycled gifts & stuff, and recycling/reusing packaging and whatnot from love-tokens you might receive from others.
Categories: Valentines, household, items, packaging
Posted by louisa
on 12 February 2010
2 Comments →
We had a message from Michelle on the ‘Suggest an Item’ page. She wrote:
My garbage disposal has chewed its last meal. It’s rusty bottom leaks more water than the titanic, leaving the sink unusable. For the past few procrastinating months I ignored it with a removable catch bucket under the drips. I have been defeated, hubby says its time to say goodbye. What could I possibly do with the old disposal besides a chuck in the landfill?
Garbage disposals aren’t very common in the UK – in fact I’ve never seen one in the flesh – so I can’t really give any advice or suggestions — but I’m sure the wonderful Recycle This community will be able to come up with some suggestions … right?
Like Alice’s question about kettles on Wednesday, this one is also potentially ripe for repairing – any suggestions for how it could be fixed? Any links to how-tos?
Categories: household, items, kitchen, repair this
Posted by louisa
on 12 February 2010
3 Comments →
We’ve had an email from Katharyn:
Can you tell me what alternatives I have to plastic milk bottles from the supermarket? I tried to get a milkman to deliver but they told me I don’t get through enough milk to warrant them adding me to the route but I seem to generate lots of empty milk bottles! I can recycle them at the supermarket but I would rather not use them in the first place.
I think the milkman – with their reusable glass bottles – is probably the best route here to go down here – such a shame they won’t deliver. How about talking to your neighbours to see if you can up the order?
Some local wholefood stores also stock milk in glass bottles – talk to them about whether you can return the bottles for reusing or whether they should be recycled with other glass bottles.
If you have to keep using your supermarket, buying in bulk would reduce the amount of plastic used per pint but then you’d have a lot of milk to get through. Milk can be frozen but it can be a little separated on thawing – perfectly fine for cooking with but a little less palatable on your cereal. Any advice on freezing milk?
Any other suggestions?
Categories: food, items, kitchen, reduce this
Posted by louisa
on 11 February 2010
7 Comments →
We’ve had an email from long time Recycle This-er Alice in Blogland:
I just killed my stainless steel on-the-hob kettle! Left it on the hob too long – I forgot about it ‘cos the whistle broke ages ago.
They do burn through eventually but I’ve never seen it happen before. It’s started leaking at the seam around the bottom where the sides join the base, and I’m a bit stuck for either re-uses or how to recycle it. Anyone got any ideas?
I think kettles with removable lids look mighty cute as plant pots but with the leak, you might want to put the pot on a plastic saucer in the kettle to catch overspill water – or it might be easier to seal the leak if you know it doesn’t have to be heat-proof too (for example, some waterproof silicone sealant might do the job well enough to use it as a plant pot but would make your tea somewhat plasticky and poisonous…).
Any other ideas for reuses? What about kettle that you refill through the spout so have less reuse-as-a-pot potential?
Anyone got any repair advice or words of caution?
Categories: household, items, kitchen, repair this
Posted by louisa
on 10 February 2010
8 Comments →
