Finishing up our impromptu barbecue themed week, I thought I’d run a post that is sure to get some people screaming “DON’T USE THEM AT ALL! USE REAL, REUSABLE PLATES!!” – and those people have a very good point. The first part of the 3Rs is Reduce and disposable paper plates are really unnecessary in most situations – and also usually really frustrating to eat off.

However, they’re still useful in some situations – for example, extraordinarily big outdoor parties, especially for clumsy kids or festivals etc – so it’s probably worth thinking about ways to reuse or recycle them for those times when they’re almost unavoidable.

Between food waste and the often synthetic wax/plastic coating used to make them moisture resistant, you don’t really want them near your compost heap. You can get paper plates designed to be composted afterwards though – some made from thick paper, some from palm fronds, others from a light bamboo – just scrape off any large amount of food waste that might cause a problem for your heap. On our post about waxed cups, someone said you can recycle them at tetrapak recycling facilities – I would if this is true of waxed paper plates too…

Any other suggestions/advice? Or ideas for alternatives?

This is cross-posted to my new frugal/growing/making/cooking blog, The Really Good Life.

I’ve reached the end … of my shampoo bottle and our mayonnaise jar. And it made me wonder…

Every vaguely-frugal/green family has their own tricks for getting those last bits of gloop, sauce, oil or whatever out of jars and bottles – but what are your top tips?

Most bottles – from condiments to shampoo – are easily emptied by standing them upside down for a few hours.

Cooking sauces – jars/cans of tomatoes – are easy too: a little squish of water around to pull off the last of the sauce/juice then into the pan it goes to be reduced off.

Cooking oils bottles and jams & honey jars get left in a bowl of hot water to make the remaining contents a little runny and easier to pour out.

Metal squeezy tubes – like tomato puree and old school toothpaste – can be rolled up and squeezed, but the new plastic toothpaste tubes aren’t so rollable – cutting them open seems the only option.

What other methods do you use?

Inspired by thinking about barbeque-related food packaging on Monday, we’re having a bit of an impromptu bbq themed week here on Recycle This. This is a less a “reuse or recycle” and more a “how do you use it up?” question…

There always seems to be a few burgers or sausages leftover at barbecues – left on the grill or the keep-warm grill even though no one wants them and they go dry or turn to indiscernible black lumps.

Of course this situation could be avoided all together but only cooking the correct meat (hard to judge) and obviously it’s better to take them off before they reach that point when they’re still edible and have them as leftovers at some point but does anyone have any recipes for dried out meat? Our fussy-when-she-wants-to-be dog turned her nose up at dry-but-still-edible burger the other week but I suspect the cats would have gone for it if we’d been at home.

And what about when they’ve gone beyond that and are, essentially, greasy charcoal? Can they be crushed/ground up and used as a soil fertiliser like other charcoal?

(Photo by DeusXFlorida

In a bit of an impromptu barbecue-themed week, I thought I’d ask about building the key part of the experience: the barbecue itself. This is partly because I’m interested in hearing bbq ideas and partly because I’m thinking of building myself a little smokehouse for my birthday and I suspect there will be a bit overlap – and asking about smokehouses may be a little obscure.

So anyway, barbecues. John’s dad, my father-in-love, has built a number of brick barbecues – a squared-off u-shape of bricks to about waist height – from salvaged bricks: I think he used grill kits for the grill bits but there is a possibility he made the coals pan from scrap metal. I’ll ask him tomorrow.

But brick structures tend to be a bit permanent – what about slightly more mobile ones? Ones made from old oil barrels (or ideally non-oil metal barrels) seem quite common the DIY bbq world. Old gas bottles can apparently be used for smaller versions but there are more safety concerns with initial cutting.

Any other suggestions? Any ideas about things to use for the coals pan or the grill itself? And what about alternatives like fire pits?

Between the good weather and the World Cup, every weekend recently has been barbeque-madness in the UK, which means the burger, salad and salad accompaniments shelves at the supermarket are stripped bare by 10am, just a solitary limp iceberg lettuce left behind to tell of the devastation.

Pre-packed prepared food like coleslaw, potato salad, bean salad or cous cous – and most salad bar tubs I’ve seen – come in plastic tubs with resealable lids, but the plastic tends to be a bit lightweight & flimsy – so not as ripe for reusing as they might be.

What do you use them for? They seem a little too flimsy to me to use as storage tubs in the kitchen – not rigid enough to clean properly.

Plant pots? Again, not the most stable plant pots in the world but a lot of starter modules/seedling pots tend to be a similar quality so they could be used for that.

Since they’re often mostly transparent, they’d also be useful for storing little items like screws or beads.

Any other reuse suggestions?

There is also obviously a potential “reduce” angle here too – it’s not hard to make these things. Unfortunately if you use mayonnaise or the like in the coleslaw/potato salad, it’s advice not to freeze it because the mayo is likely to separate on thawing — but if you think ahead, you could freeze ideal-portion-size amounts of the shredded vegetables mixed together, or cooked potatoes – so then it’s a doddle to made them when you need them: just defrost and add the mayo & any other seasonings. Or you can make special recipes for freezing – such as freezer slaw.

What are your favourite recipe ideas?