Annie sent in a suggestion at the weekend:

I have an umbrella cover – it’s a pretty black and pink tough fabric, originally from Accessorise. Unfortunately i left the umbrella that went with it on a train… any ideas what i could do with the case?

I usually have the opposite problem – losing the cover – so I’d probably just stash the spare cover in a drawer until I lost the one from my new umbrella but aside from that, any other ideas? Ones that would take advantage of the cover’s prettiness and water resistant would be best but obviously any suggestions are welcome.

(I couldn’t find a photo of one hence the generic umbrella shot but for those that don’t know, the covers are sheaths of fabric that fit over the closed up umbrella to protect the fabric of the umbrella and if the brolly is wet, to stop water getting all over the contents of your bag etc. They’re usually made from the same fabric as the umbrella and sometimes have a tie/toggle at the open end to tighten it around the base.)

(Photo by vale)

We’ve had an email from Jesse with a suggestion:

I use a French Press for making coffee in the morning, but I’ve gone through them in the past because they eventually crack.

Well, my most recent one finally cracked because of the dishwasher (my mistake…) but now what do I do with it? I’ve been searching the internet for an idea, and came across your site. any help?

We’ve had this problem in the past too (John being the clumsy dishwasher to blame here) so any suggestions? I guess as different bits will break for different people, suggestions can be for either the plunger bit or the body.

(Photo by Gerbera)

I’ve always been a film fanatic and amassed quite a collection of videos over the years until DVDs came along. Most of my pre-recorded ones were given away and the ones we recorded ourselves went to live in the attic along with the VCR itself. A couple of years on, they’re still up there.

I hadn’t thought of them though until I posted the blog on televisions a couple of weeks ago then Brian emailed to say he had a similar collection of now-redundant tapes too – and now here we are: how can we reuse or recycle video tapes?
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Had an email from Dave England asking: What do you do with smoke alarms that have low-level radiation sources in them?

He went on to explain that he’d heard that they should be replaced every ten years and his smoke alarms are now at least ten years old so he wants to know what he should do with them.

Ours are pretty new so we’ve not had this issue yet – but has anyone else come up against it?

According to Wikipedia, we’re looking at “a tiny mass of radioactive americium-241” in smoke detectors that use ionization and while Americium is widely used, like other similar elements (Actinides), it can have an impact on the environment – but there are few guidelines for disposing of old smoke alarms.

So, does anyone know if (and how) can they be safely recycled? Or are there are any safe reuses?

(Photo by cancsajn)

Colleen Christensen has asked:

Is there anything one can do with rancid cooking oil?

(I don’t know how rancid she means by rancid but let’s assume she just means used and therefore slightly icky – say oil or lard from deep frying – rather than full on bleugh.)

I know that commercial fryers can recycle their old oil (for use as biodiesel) but what about domestic chefs who aren’t using anywhere near as much? And what about other uses?

(Photo by float)