We’ve had an email from Ali, asking about goose fat:

We jumped onto the goose fat bandwagon at Christmas because everyone was saying it was the best way to make roast potatoes but they were awful!! Not sure if it was my fault or the fat but either way they’re off the menu here now!! We’ve got a nearly full jar full what can we do with it? Compost?

I wouldn’t compost it – our compost bins aren’t sealed and I’d worry about it attracting vermin/animals to the area — too many downsides for not that much compost “profit”.

If I was you, I’d probably see if a friend wanted it. There are lots of other things to cook with goose fat aside from roast potatoes apparently – but I guess they’re not much good if the potatoes were “awful” because of the fat’s flavour. Someone else might be able to use it up though.

Aside from that, the consensus seems to be that it’s ok to use to make fat balls for birds. It’s not supposed to be as good as more solid lard but will make a calorific – and expensive – dinner for the local wildlife.

Any other suggestions – recipes or other uses?

Following in the vein of “how can I get into the habit of taking packed lunches?”, I thought it would be useful to gather together your thoughts and tips on getting into the habit of using reusable shopping bags. Because cutting down on plastic carriers is going save the world you know. ;)

So what do you do to make sure you always have cloth bags, reusable plastic ones or just old carriers on hand when you need them? We’re very good at taking reusable bags with us when we’re consciously heading to the supermarket on a shopping trip but don’t always have them on hand if we’re out doing something else and pop into a shop randomly. (I still say no to bags though if I can, even if it means the bus driver looks at me funny when I get on balancing a pie and bread roll on top of 18 better-than-half-price recycled toilet rolls – as happened on Tuesday night.)

I know some cloth/nylon bags are designed to fold up tightly – either with poppers or a bag to keep them neat – so they can easily be carried around in a handbag without much bother. (And basic plastic bags can be folded into triangles for neat storage and transportation).

Other people always keep a stash of carriers in their car for when they need them.

But what about ideas for those of us who neither carry handbags or drive cars? What do you do?

We’ve had an email from Georgina:

Where can i recycle electric toothbrushes? What about the replaced brushes?

Electric toothbrushes are covered under Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations so should be recycled in designated WEEE bins at tips etc. The replacement heads almost certainly won’t be covered by that though – perhaps some of the reuse suggestions for normal toothbrushes would work — the ideas where you don’t need the full length handle.

Any specific reuse or recycling ideas for them though?

(Like with everything, do think about the most important of the 3R’s before buying a new one – reduce. Do you really need an electric toothbrush instead of a manual one? If so, a mains powered one (assuming you have mains power in a suitable place) may be a better buy over a rechargeable one – the rechargeable ones tend to be sealed units for waterproofing and once the battery goes (which it invariably will), the whole thing has to be thrown out unless you’re very good at fixing things.)

Hey team. Apologies for the lack of a post on Friday – I was ill with my second cold of 2011 (which, given it was only the 7th of Jan, I thought was pretty good/bad going. I’m in the constant coughing stage now, such fun.) I spent the whole day in bed wishing I could get a sinus transplant – only momentarily distracted by the new DEFRA 2009-2010 recycling stats by area report – numbers are the best medicine ;)

Those who know that Strepsils are a vaguely medicinal lozenge for sore throats will probably be able to see that the inspiration for this post came from my sick bed.

For years, they’ve been sold in blister packs but now you can get them in plastic “handy tubes” too. I would imagine that the tubes use more packaging per tablet than the blister packs but they seem considerably easier to reuse, and reuse often, than blister packs.

The tubes are sturdy plastic, just less than 2cm/an inch in diameter and about 10cm/5ins long. The lid pops off but re-seals securely – the new camera film canister, perhaps?

The tube I’ve got smells strongly of “honey & lemon” so I’m not sure I’d want to use it for food items in the first instance but it would be perfect in a sewing kit – somewhere to keep needles, buttons or other small fastenings, or even a whole emergency kit for carrying in a handbag. As the top’s seal feels at least water-tight, it would probably be great for taking small quantities of shampoo or conditioner (etc) when travelling.

Any other suggestions?

I don’t know about you but I’m itching to get a start on spring cleaning this year – or rather spring decluttering – and as well as getting rid of a whole bunch of stuff, I’d like to have better, neater storage for the stuff I have.

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.
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