We’ve had an email from Rebecca asking:

What can i do with green plastic berry baskets? In the US strawberries and cherry tomatoes come in these baskets; they are number 5 plastic, and I have amassed more than I have little items to hold.

Number 5 plastic isn’t usually included in the standard recycling repertoire in most places so I guess we’re looking for reuses.

Like Annie’s feta cheese basket last year, these baskets probably won’t be strong enough to hold particularly heavy things – but any suggestions?

Particularly any suggestions that will take advantage of the mostly open structure?

Hurrah! We’ve had a “Reverse This” question from Kathryn for our new, hopefully regular feature – Recycle This working backwards :)

Kathryn says:

I’ve been into recycled crafts lately, and want to make a notebook out of recycled materials. How can I do this with easy stuff found at home?

Ooh, I’m sure there are loads of ideas for this one, probably somewhat more creative than my usual bulldog-clip-around-scrap-paper efforts.

Any suggestions what Kathryn can use for covers? Or ways to hold it all together?

• Got something you want to make out of recycled stuff but need a bit more inspiration? Send me an email about it and I’ll feature it on here: reversethis@recyclethis.co.uk

We’ve had an email from Tamara asking:

How can I reuse photo albums that hold up to 300 photos? I have a few as I have created photo books instead. I would like to find another use for the photo albums.

If they’re still in good condition, it might be worth giving them to your local charity shop for someone else to use but I went through a period of decorating my photo albums (because they were dull to start with) and I doubt anyone would want them.

Other reuses then. The most obvious one that springs to mind – but may only be good for flip albums, not big multi-pics-on-a-page ones – is for recipes: write the recipe on a bit of card or paper, slip it into the photo slot and the plastic sleeve will protect it from cooking splatters and greasy fingers while you work. A flip album could also be used as an address book.

Any other suggestions?

(On related topics, we’ve already covered unwanted photos and negatives – check those out for lots of creative ideas!)

(Photo by lusi)

We’ve had an email from Bree, asking:

How can I recycle/reuse the multitude of little allen wrenches I have acquired with my IKEA furniture? I have a pile of them!

It’s a shame they’re not opt-in to begin with – because we’ve got a number kicking around too – but I guess that doesn’t fit with their everything-you-need-in-one-standard-pack concept.

Obviously one or two of them can go into your tool box for other jobs but that’s not going to use up that pile (how many reserve allen keys does a person really need?). We actually tend to tape the leftover allen key to the back/underside of the piece of furniture it arrived with so if we need to disassemble it in a hurry, but that’s only happened once so is probably a bit excessive.

So how about reuses? I imagine they’d be pretty good for keeping with your shoe cleaning kit – for digging stuff out between ridges in the soles of trainers – but that’s only one. Any other suggestions?

(I’ve contacted IKEA about this by the way, to see if they’ve got any schemes or plans to go opt-in — no response yet though. UPDATE: see my comment below.)

Lucia, of the weather balloons from last week, is another one of those fab people who makes cool things by recycling random stuff.

You can see examples of her creations at http://www.jblarts.com but I thought I’d also feature a few of my favourite things here – namely the egg box fairy light shades (above) and the old electronics as earrings below. I also think what she’s dubbed a “tattoo bracelet” is also very cool – a shaped strip of an old plastic bottle with a pretty design on it – a simple but great idea, with loads of possible variations.