We’ve had an email from Yvonne, asking:

I have a small vinyl accordion door (single door size). One of the vinyl folds are tearing. How can I fix?

There seem to be a range of vinyl repair kits available for fixing small holes in furnishings, which might do the job.

Searching around for general advice on repairing vinyl, it seems there is a difference between fixing it and fixing it neatly. It some places the latter is seen as important but it can be a pain to find vinyl to match the colour of your aged/sun-bleached stuff. On an accordion door, you could make a feature of the repair by using a contrasting stripe of colour – and uses more stripes to reinforce the other folds to stop their tearing in the future. That would probably take more vinyl than you’d get in a little kit though.

Any more detailed fix suggestions?

There is a lot of chatter in the US and the UK at the moment about putting a “tax” on plastic carrier bags to stop shops giving them out willy-nilly.

There is already a charge in place in Ireland and I read something the other day that explained while the amount of carrier bags given out by shops has dropped dramatically, the number of bin liners and garbage bags sold has increased because so many people used to reuse the carriers in the bin. That makes it feel like less of a victory – and it’s not exactly a huge victory to start with.

The thought of buying something to use to aid throwing stuff away seems really counter-intuitive to my brain but without using bin liners or the like, we’re constantly having to scrub out our kitchen bin with pretty harsh chemicals – we’re not big wasters, we compost as much as we can and most packaging we get is recyclable, so usually the only things that end up in there are pretty yacky.

So is there a line between disposable plastic bags and endless bleachy scrubbing? I thought about newspapers – a sheet as a throwaway liner would probably be fine for all but the wettest stuff – but since we don’t buy them either, that’s not an option really – what is?

We’ve had an email from Rebecca:

I have a grill I no longer need, but it’s a bit grotty so I don’t think I could sell it on. It looks like this –>

Are there any facilities for recycling items like this? It seems a waste to bin it, but it’s difficult to clean so we couldn’t get it into a resaleable state.

In the UK, it will be covered by the WEEE Directive so the place you bought it from might take it back – or if nothing else, there should be an electricals spot at your local “household waste sorting site” (ie, the local tip), where they’ll get disposed of properly.

If it still works though, it would be a shame to scrap it just because it’s a bit grotty. If you don’t think you can sell it, try giving it away on Freecycle instead – someone might be grateful for it in whatever state it is in – particularly if they have a non-food use for it. The only non-food use that springs to mind instantly is for making shrinky-dinks but I bet someone with some electrical knowledge could use the heating element/timer for something fancy and useful.

Any other ideas?

We’ve had an email from ReuseRecycleMom’s Von, saying:

I am recycling my grandmother’s old tea cups into bird feeders. I thought I’d share….

I’d love other ideas with what to do with odd bits of china.

We’ve already covered some bits and pieces – like mugs & cups that have lost their handles, and broken crockery in general – but what about other odd bits: cups & saucers like here, or gravy boats, milk jugs and other random tableware.

If they’re in good condition, they can of course go to charity shops or the like – the household bricabrac shelves are my favourite place for picking up beautifully ugly china – but what about stuff that chipped or cracked?

Like with last week’s baby food jars, I’ve seen old pretty cups and saucers used to make sewing kits (the cup topped with a pincushion and used for storage, the saucer used for holding pins/buttons mid-job) and old chipped shallow bowls around here are frequently used underneath plants.

Any other suggestions?

We’ve had a message from Helen, asking:

I have a rubber bath mat that the kids don’t seem to need any more. It’s (to be frank) a bit manky so I feel I can’t freecycle it. However I don’t want to just chuck it either. Is there a way to recycle something like this?

All suggestions gratefully received!

I’m sure there are tons of ways to reuse them around the home and garden. The first ones that spring to mind take advantage of the fact it’s non-slip – cut circles out of the least manky parts and there you go, non-slip mats for underneath plant pots or the like

Any other ideas?

(Oh, and if you’re wondering about fabric bathmats, we covered them a few months ago.)