We just got married (yay!) and while we tried to keep the waste to a minimum, we have ended up with about 100 personalised wedding cake boxes leftover. Not sure how that happened! They’re just card but I’d like to reuse them anyway but didn’t know what to do since they’ve got our names and wedding date on them. Any ideas?

Are they pretty card (unlike the boring white ones in the picture)? If so, the non-customised bits could be reused for any general craft purposes. Although like with wedding dress we discussed a few years ago, it would be nice to use it for keepsakes rather than just … I don’t know, very fancy shopping lists ;)

Could they be turned into postcards for wedding present thank you notes – or used to make a “thank you kit” (a couple of small photos and a note)? A friend of mine sent out cheap USB storage keys with lots of photos from the day on them – candid snaps from friends as well as official ones – and a cake/favour box would be the perfect size for that.

Or to be super cute, how about splitting them between the two of you and writing each other messages for your future anniversaries – predictions of what will be or “IOU” promises for the long distant future?

Any other suggestions?

Here are some of the ways I’ll be making recycled storage solutions from rubbish around our home:

Cereal boxes (or scrap cardboard) into magazine files

We have approximately eleventy-hundred tons of paper in the house at the moment – even if half can be thrown away, that’s a whole lot of stuff that needs filing.

Cereal boxes make quick and easy magazine holders – for magazines, notebooks or just papers. Paint them or cover them with pretty paper (or newspaper for a more modern look) to coordinate with your decor/hide your addiction to Coco Puffs.

If you need them to be a bit sturdier, it’s also easy to make your own magazine files from scratch from any scrap cardboard.

Wall mounted storage cans

Lee Meredith turned some coffee cans into fun wall mounted yarn storage – and the same principle can be applied to any cans. They can also attached in the same way but mounted vertically to store other things – like pens, paintbrushes or kitchen utensils.

(I just showed my boyfriend John’s Lee’s yarn pics and he said “phwarr!” and pointed out that if you attached the cans to the walls with stronger screws, you could use them as fun and functional brackets for shelves.)

Storage boxes made from old magazines or newspaper

Old magazines or newspaper can be transformed into storage in a number of different ways – layered up to make mini-hat boxes, coiled into open bowls, or woven into a useful open box for storing … more newspapers.

Upcycled stackable boxes

A basic reuse but a goody!

The bits of our lives which are already sorted involve ice cream boxes or shoe boxes – packaging that’s sturdy and regular in shape so easy to stack.

The ice cream boxes – plastic rectangular boxes (either 1ltr or 2ltr tubs) – are mainstay for our random under-the-sink stuff organising — we’ve got boxes for batteries, for shoe polish, for laundry accessories (stain removers etc) and fuses. The plastic keeps the contents waterproof too. (Large margarine tubs work well too, just ice cream tubs tend to be a bit bigger & sturdier.)

I use a lot of shoe boxes for craft supplies and in the bedroom – my winter hats live in one through the summer, my tights live in another for the 364 days a year when I wear jeans, my odd socks live in another ahead of repairing. They all hide in my wardrobe/drawers but if they were on show, I could easily paint them or cover them with paper.

Ladders for shelves

Old ladders – ones that are a little knackered so not safe enough for climbing – make great shabby chic shelves.

You can hang then vertically as a towel rack or you can use them with some other scrap wood to make a bookshelf. Or you can hang them horizontally for longer knick knack shelves.

Milk bottles for pencils

I’ve featured these before but I still love the idea if you’ve got a lot of pencils, pens or that sort of thing – use plastic milk bottles to make grabbable storage boxes.

Hanging hooks from old cutlery and toys

I love hooks – they let us get our junk up out of the way – but there is no reason why they have to be boring.

How about some very cool coat racks using old cutlery for the hooks (or just stand alone hooks with the same principle)?

Or perhaps you’d prefer fun but creepy using old doll parts?

Old pipes into pan racks

Staying with the hanging theme, use old piping to make a feature wall-mounted pan rack – or just a hanging-anything rack really.

(Amy of My Suburban Homestead used a similar principle – albeit with new piping – to make a ceiling mounted pot rack too.)

Do you have any other great upcycling suggestions we should add?

For my Product Design A2 level I am aiming to create a chair made from recycled materials. I’ve got to be able to collect them in a fairly short time, and of course it would be very helpful if the items were free…I’ve got an open mind about it, and I need some inspiration fairly quick.

Cardboard chairs are the first thing to spring to mind – designers have made them in all sorts of shapes and styles and there are a number of how-tos around the internet, and people talking about the theory of making them too.

If it doesn’t have to be a formal chair, it might be worth exploring upcycling old clothes or bedding to make a bean bag. (I’ve also used old clothes to repair broken chairs on a number of occasions – an opened out jean leg is about the right width for a director’s chair seat – but those projects did start with a real chair frame.)

Getting a bit more involved than just cardboard or fabric, you can make chairs from old oil drums/barrels – for example, these basic chairs or a more flamboyant rocker. Plastic barrels might be slightly easier to work with but still transformable (these chairs aren’t made from old barrels but give an idea of possible shape).

Any other suggestions for Adele?

(Photo by Jascha400d)

• Lynsey from SwirlyArts has been in touch to tell us about two of her recent reusing projects – turning a unwanted old diary into an expenses notebook and how to make pretty padded envelopes out of old books & bubblewrap, as an alternative to boring Jiffy bags.
• The Cottage Smallholder is having a reusing/recycling gardening competition this month – how are you reusing/recycling things to get ready for the next growing season?
• Speaking of getting organised, check out My Tiny Plot for a great idea for keeping up with seed sowing – it’s not strictly a reuse but it could be — an old floppy disk box/card file would be great for this.
• Mrs Green on My Zero Waste has written about a new initiative to recycle crisp packets in the UK.
• I really like the aesthetic of cardboard for home decor so love this idea of making wall art using toilet roll/kitchen roll tubes.
• Julie on Crafting a Green World has written a great round-up of baby projects made from old tshirts.
• And finally, make a feature wall at home a bit different – don’t use generic feature wall wallpaper, use old books (or music scores) instead. As a booklover, I don’t know if I could take apart a still-could-be-read book for such a purpose but it’s a great idea for books that are falling apart.

Our wonderful family and friends brought a selection of home made cakes to our Christmas party and I’ve been left with 5 cake boards. They’re card so I won’t be able to wash them to use them again but I don’t want to just throw them out. What can I do with them?

Actually recycling them might be a problem if they’re mixed materials – cardboard topped with foil or the like. You can rip the foil off and recycle the card but it’ll be better to reuse them if possible.

I’ve seen a pinboard made from cardboard cake boards – stick a couple together if you want them to be thicker/stronger. An alternative to that might be sticking a bulldog clip or the like to the top and using it as a clipboard for shopping lists. The thinner square/rectangular ones might also work as covers for a notebook – perhaps for all your favourite cake recipes? :)

It’s hard to reduce waste when items come as a gift but perhaps you could encourage the cake bakers in your life to use washable alternatives in the future – either a purpose-made acrylic or wooden board, or a large pretty plate — I find charity shops a good source for the latter.

Any other reuse suggestions – or alternatives for future cakes?

I’ve been using old washing powder boxes instead of box files. I get the big flip top lid boxes and they’re really sturdy and stackable. Much better than recycling the cardboard and buying new boxes!

Great idea, Terri.

Some powders are very perfumed or smell strongly of chemicals so you’d probably have to be careful about storing certain things in there but they’ll be perfect for things .. you won’t be licking ;)

We’ve asked about reducing the amount of washing powder packaging used but anyone got any other ideas for reusing the boxes?

They’re cardboard so I can put them in my green bin but can anyone suggest any reuses for them?

I imagine they’d be good for any general dry storage – as drawer dividers for little things, for recipe cards in the kitchen, or the bigger boxes for keeping packets – of sauces or seeds – organised and upright.

Aside from that, I bet creative kids could use the boxes in a number of ways – an already constructed building block.

Any other suggestions?

(Photo from Lizzy, thanks Lizzy!)

Ooh, I thought, I bet once I’ve used up all the sticky tape, I could cover this in something like fabric, wool or wire and make a proper fun bangle.

And then I thought, hmm, I wonder what else I could use it for? And if only I knew of a website where I could put that question out to the wonderfully creative world and see what ideas they could come up with. If only!

All the ones I have are cardboard so they could just go in the recycling bin – or the compost heap since they’re usually not inky or anything – but I do like reuses. So, any ideas?

And what about those tiny plastic ones you get on Scotch tape rolls?

(Photo by hberends)

Yarn/wool cones. I bought a giant cone of yarn on eBay the other day from someone clearing out their yarn stash. I thought I’d use it for for my next big crafting project, a crocheted blanket but as the yarn is, well, sunshine (read: oh-my-God-so-bright) yellow, I’ll have to get another one in a less retina-straining tone to calm it down a bit – and that means I’ll then have two of these hollow cones.

The one I’ve got at the moment is about 20cm (8″) tall and tapered to around 7cm (3″) in diameter at the base from around 2.5cm (1″) at the top. It’s made of heavy duty cardboard – so recyclable – but you know me*, I prefer to reuse instead of recycle. I’ve also seen a lot of similarly sized plastic cones about which aren’t so easily recyclable.

Since it’s a craft-related item, I’m sure there are loads of crafty reuses – but what about practical things too?

* if you don’t know me, hi, I’m Louisa. I like to reuse and repurpose random things. It’s nice to meet you.

It seems like they would be good for doing something more with, considering the long jagged edge / blade and all.

Funnily enough – and proof that everyone out there is READING MY MIND – I was thinking about this just the other week. My grease-proof paper box has plastic coating on the jagged edge, which makes it better for tearing but worse for recycling. Grr.

So any suggestions for reusing them – whether metal or plastic, or just a cardboard box?

And what about reducing them in the first place – anyone know of any particular companies that make refill rolls to save getting the whole new box each time? I seem to recall that some supermarket value brand in the UK is box-less but I can’t remember which one – and suspect that’s just wrapped in plastic instead anyway.

(Photo by Ilmari Karonen, c/o Wikipedia)

Hi, I’ve got one for you, playing cards. I play a lot of poker with my buddies and our cards get bashed up pretty quickly, the edges bent over primarily so we can’t play with them anymore. They’re plastic (?) coated so can’t be recycled with cardboard, right?

Just because you can’t play with them any more though doesn’t mean that they’re at the end of their useful life.

Yes, you’re right that they can’t be recycled as paper if they’re plastic coated – but they’d make fun bookmarks, the non-face cards could be used for shopping lists and if some still have strong edges, you could drag them between keyboard keys to pull out the stupid amount of cat hair and sesame seeds collected in the gaps (maybe that’s just my keyboard).

Any other reuses?

They can also be included in a number of crafts/decoration projects – for example, they could cheer up dull storage boxes, and could also be used as a fun way to differentiate the boxes or label them if they need to be in sequence. Some brilliant people have turned them into business card wallets, MP3 players/iPod cases, or even a fantastic bag. They can also be used for any type of small scale papercrafts that require a light card.

Any other suggestions on what to make from them?

(Photo by mordoc)

But what if you prefer decorations that aren’t shop bought? I’m sure all you clever, crafty people have a billion ideas to make pretty Christmas things – and I’m sure a lot of them will reuse or recycle random bits and bobs which would otherwise go in the bin.

I remember making paperchains out of glossy colour magazines as a kid but if we decorate our house these days, I suspect I’d prefer something a little less … paperchain-y.

I like the idea of little festive candle lanterns made from old tin cans, Precarious Tomato’s prescription pill bottle wreath and Alison Bailey Smith’s gorgeous scrap wire baubles. I seem to recall someone making baubles out of old-style lightbulbs too but can’t remember the details… And our friend Deb has made a Christmas tree out of cardboard (the last time we had a tree, a good few years ago now, we had a cardboard one too – but Deb’s looks far more sturdy than ours.)

Have you seen any good upcycling ideas? What have you reused to make recycled Christmas decorations?

I take hanging file folder and straighten it . Then I glue on it a poster, picture , interesting fabric or a group of photographs.

Finally, I knock two nails into a wall, and hang my creation with plastic edges that stick out.

My last-but-one place of work used to have loads of suspension files, well, hanging about which wouldn’t be used again because they were the wrong size for all our filing cabinets – and I’m sure they’re is far from unique, so this is a great idea to use them up. Sticking in the office environment, you could glue/staple large corner mounts on it and use it as a pin-free noticeboard.

Any other suggestions of things to do with them?

Supermarkets appear to be more than happy to give away boxes. I made a trip each morning of our packing and got about 20 Banana Boxes – big enough without becoming too heavy, rectangular for neat storage, with optional lids – perfect.

Indeed they are – last time I moved house (about eight years ago now, cor! that’s ages!) I used them and we used another load when helping a friend move earlier this year. With the lids, they’re really quite strong so ideal when the movees are booklovers like we are or when they need to be stacked for storage during transit.

But when, about two years after moving in, I finally finished unpacking all my books, I didn’t really know how to reuse the boxes so just recycled the cardboard – but Iain has an idea for that too:

Rather than buy stylish new boxes from Ikea for storing jumpers etc., we covered the banana boxes with nice recycled paper for cheaper, friendlier, and even nicer results!

(And because there are ventilation holes in the side, the clothes etc. shouldn’t get as musty or moldy as they would in a more sealed box.)

I’d tempted to get some for use on top of our wardrobes for our out-of-season clothes and might decorate them with the same wallpaper and paint as the bedroom for camouflage-a-go-go.

Any more ideas for ways to reuse them?

Then the next day, I went downstairs and there was one on the sofa. I nearly jumped out of my skin: my internet history had become solid!

Thankfully it wasn’t a Twilight Zone episode which would end with me being beaten to death with a giant Google logo – just John had used it to carry some Chai tea home when we had choley & puree for breakfast (mmm).

I could just fling it in the compost but as always, I’d rather reuse than compost/recycle.

So any suggestions?

Because John and I are utterly, utterly wild and live a hectic, glamorous lifestyle, the highlight of our Saturday a couple of weekends ago was a trip into Leeds for coffee and freshly made donuts from our two favourite street vendors. My build-up is mocking in tone but we’d seriously looked forward to it for about three days and were GUTTED to find the donut van wasn’t there. We searched all over the city centre in case it had just moved location but no. We had to make do with baklava from the Greek deli in the market instead and as yummy as it was, it wasn’t the same as donuts.

A few minutes later, when I found myself staring into the dark abyss of my coffee cup lamenting the lack of donuts, my eyes were momentarily distracted from my gloom by the cardboard sleeve around the cup. I’m always a fan of reusing cups when possible (we’ve already covered the plastic variety on the site) but not specifically thought about the ridged cardboard sleeves so common on takeout hot drinks these days.

So any suggestions?

I guess one re-use might be as packaging around flat (or cylindrical) items in the post or possibly cushioning under a heavy object (although the ridges might get squished out if the item is too heavy). Any other ideas?

(One idea of course may be to not accept them in the first place – if you drink take-out hot drinks regularly, you could make your own reusable sleeve from a scrap of fabric.)

(Oh, and just to clarify: we don’t go to Starbucks – we go to an independent place – it was just the best picture I could find to illustrate ridged sleeves.)

What can I do with old tissue boxes? The ones I get have a plastic layer on the inside of the top so make it easier to pull single tissues out. I realise that if I tear that out I can just recycle them with my card but is there anything I can do with it otherwise?

The greenest solution is usually to use hankies or equivalent re-usable clothes instead of tissues but that’s not always possible.

I buy big boxes of tissues and decant them into old smaller boxes for different rooms around the house so if the plastic-ked ones are quite small, you could do that.

Any other suggestions? What about for the box in general?

(Photo by scol22)

The last-but-one place did a full run of 1000 cards for him without asking whether he wanted them (no) – and he didn’t give out a single card. He estimates he gave out about 10 cards for the previous place but no one ever used them to contact him. What a wonderful waste.

The cards were the perfect size for the talk – discrete but easy to handle – but since he hasn’t got another talk planned for a while, what else can be done with his old business cards?

(Photo by brokenarts)

Spies in films use them for hiding bugs or recording equipment in, but what about us lesser, real-life mortals?

Any suggestions?

(Photo by logic)

Can I recycle the boxes that baby powered milk comes in? Cow & Gate comes in a laminated cardboard outer case, plastic lid and silver-foil covering on the inside of the box which is non-detachable. What should I put it in with – cardboard, plastic or foil?

Oooh, that’s a good question: I suspect if you can pull the lid off – and it’s a type of plastic covered by your recycling people – then that’s ok to be thrown in with plastics but does anyone know what the deal is with foil-lined cardboard?

Cow and Gate claims this new packaging is better for the environment that their old tins and they “use recycled materials wherever possible” – but they’ve not got back to me about how the tubs can be recycled post-consumer. (UPDATE: they have done now. Their response is in the comments.)

Any ideas for reuses?

We covered excessive Easter egg packaging last year but are still keen to hear your ideas and suggestions.

The cardboard can usually be recycled and the foil reused in a number of crafty ways but what about the plastic?

I got sent a (freebie promotional) tshirt from the US a couple of weeks ago and for some reason they decided to send it in a solid cardboard poster tube instead of an envelope or postal bag.

Said tube has sat around the living room ever since with a “how can I be reused?” question mark hanging over its head. It’s a solid cardboard tube, about 50cm long (20″) with plastic caps at each end (one of them with a lip to make it easy to take out).

Now, thanks to one of our friend’s newly-discovered love of expensive whisky, it’s also now been joined by a similar whisky bottle tube – slightly lighter cardboard but similar plastic caps.

I’ve kept them to this point for reuse if I need to send anything small poster-ish through the post but that’s quite unlikely – so any other suggestions?

• Dried fresh flowers – such as roses
• Greetings cards
• Wrapping paper

And while we’ve thought about the wrapping on individual chocolates, we haven’t thought about the chocolate boxes themselves.

Some of them – particularly the high end, Valentine’s Day ish ones – are quite pretty and I’ve used them in the past for storing letters and the like. But what about other reuses? Have

Some boxes have formed plastic to hold the individual chocolates – like cake packaging – so it would be great if anyone had recycling ideas for those too.

(Photo by lynnc)

(Oh and hello people from i-am-bored.com! :) )

I have something that needs to be recycle and actually is recyclable but maybe companies will charge a lot to take them.

We have considered using a wood chipper to chop them into smaller pieces and then send them to a landfill but that will only solve our waste issue not our recycling issue.

This is probably on a lot bigger scale than most of the commenters on this site usually think about but if anyone’s got any ideas at all, post a comment below and maybe Andrew and his company will be able to scale it up and save all that landfill space.

Most of our favourite cereals come in plastic bags within glossy-printed cardboard boxes so we’re left with a lot of rubbish at the end of each pack.

When I was small, cereal boxes were regularly harvested for their card but I don’t do as much cutting and sticking for fun now – and when I do need some non-corrugated card, cat food boxes tend to be sturdier (if slightly smelling of fish and ash).

As with most paper products, they will compost down but some people worry about the full colour printed designs – some inks are toxic and will leech chemicals into the compost.

Any reusing or recycling for the card sides or the boxes as a whole?

(Photo by simbncn)

But the thing is, I can never think of enough random bits and pieces that would utilise them properly. I tend to buy more bigger, more sturdy boxes for anything that needs a permanent home, or use plastic (ice-cream-esque) tubs if I need the contents to be kept dry so the shoe boxes end up cluttering up the place with their potential, but unrealised, re-usability.

So any suggestions of other ways I could use them? Or specific suggestions of things I could put in them?

Thanks for the light bulb ideas – really great.

Cheers, Em

We use them until they’re dead too and I worry about reusing them if they’re food gacky – but any suggestions anyway, particularly if the gack level is low?

(Oh, and I’ve also had an email from a chap called Antony who wants to find a company that makes cardboard boxes from recycled cardboard – if anyone has any ideas, leave a comment below or email me and I’ll forward along the message)

We throw the used matches on the compost heap but every few weeks, we have a empty box too. We buy cook’s matches so they’re quite big boxes – any suggestions on what we can do with them?

We’re lucky that we’ve got a few good pizza places in the vicinity so will be on cheese-highs by bedtime (weee, cheese dreams!) but we’ll wake up remorseful tomorrow, after our binge tonight, because we won’t know what to do with the cardboard pizza boxes that will be covering the living room floor.

We usually just fling them in the cardboard-recycling bin but any other suggestions?

A suggestion from my dad:

Daughter,

So then?

Garden uses would probably be best but I’m sure he’ll consider anything. And he’s promised to take photos of anything he does with them : )