orangeterra left a comment on the “Suggest An Item” page:

What can I do with my old Birkenstock sandals? They’re a combo of rubbery foam soles, cork footbed, and leather straps. Because they take the shape of my feet, I doubt they’d be good hand-me-downs, but I hate to toss them.

Birkenstock has a page about their green production/distribution policies and advice on repairing/maintenance suggestions to prolong the life of the sandals. Birkenstock USA also links to shoe redistribution charity Soles4Souls.

Depending on which bit of orangeterra’s sandals has give way, they might benefit from a little repair – get a few more months out of them with new soles – or if the sole is good but the rest ruined/broken, they might be suitable for turning into slippers.

Any other suggestions? Or recycling links?

• Craftzine linked to Christopher Paul’s painted plates – giving chintzy old plates a new lease of life (presumably just as artwork but still). A very fun idea!
• The Greenists ran a tutorial by Mudnessa on turning wide leg jeans into skinny ones – perfect if you fancy a change.
• Alison pointed us in the direction of this news story about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill – how hairdressers and transvestites are recycling stuff together to help soak up the oil
• Leo sent us an email to alert us to the RSPB’s second-hand binocular collection scheme – if you’ve got any old binoculars, telescopes or tripods lying around your house, you can donate them to the RSPB and they’ll use them in a conservation or educational project.
• And Joris sent us an email about Gumdropbins – fun bins to collect chewing gum – which are made from old chewing gum.
• It should be a bit late in the year for this type of thing but since the heating’s off & I’m thinking summery thoughts, the nights can still get pretty chilly – and that’s when hot water bottles with super snuggy recycled covers are just perfect.
• Finally, Alex from Just Cook It has been blogging about cooking with nettles recently – and the recipes sound fantastic. A great way to “reuse” those weeds from the garden!

We talk a lot about upcycling, reusing or recycling old clothes and textiles but Louis wants help passing them on:

A couple of years ago our company produced some clothing (hooded sweatshirts and t-shirts for men and women).

We still have quite a substantial amount of this clothing, which we plan to donate to charity. Every item is brand new and is extremely good quality (100% combed cotton) and each item is individually wrapped in a plastic bag.

We were wondering if you have any contacts or links to legitimate clothing charities who may be interested in this clothing? We’re keen for this clothing to be used by those in need (and not recycled)

A “substantial amount” would probably overwhelm a high street charity shop but it might be worth getting in contact with a local shop anyway – they might be able to put you in touch with someone higher up the chain who could distribute the items over a wider area.

What about more direct distribution to those in need? Does anyone know about any charities who accept large amount of clothing for giving out rather than resale? From what I’ve read, large international aid charities tend to prefer money to items (or items to be sold in their local shops to make money for sending overseas), because the items are rarely what they need in a given situation but does anyone know different?

We’ve had an email from Su:

Although is not strictly a recycle or indeed repair, I nonetheless need help!

I bought a lovely dress in a second hand shop which I just know I would get loads of wear from if only I could remove the smell! It seems to have been washed in a very highly perfumed washing powder or maybe fabric conditioner. Unfortunately, I am very susceptible to smells, so at the moment there is no way I can wear. I have washed it countless times, it’s been hung outside for weeks now and I have soaked it in vinegar, all to no avail, the smell does not even seem to be fading. It’s made of a man made material.

Any suggestions?

We often get clothes with a “charity shop smell” (which isn’t a bad smell, per se, just an overly-perfumed one) but one wash usually sorts them out, so I don’t know what to suggest on this lingering aroma. I suspect the answer may be to use bicarb of soda since that’s great at absorbing smells but I don’t know how that would be applied… Anyone know?

Any other ideas?

We’ve had an email from Jill with a question that I’m hoping our wonderful legion of crafters will be able to answer:

I’ve recently unravelled a jumper I knitted many years ago. The wool is good quality and now ready to use again. I can’t get the crimp out of the man made fibre yarn. It’s also good quality and I’d really like to use it again. I’ve washed it and hung it out to dry but the crimp is still there. Have you any suggestions?

I’ve not unravelled that many things (due to a lack of materials not a lack of desire, frogging really appeals to my OCD) so haven’t had that much experience with resistant crimping – one jumper was sorted after a wash and dry cycle; the gentle tension of winding it into a ball was enough for another (a cotton one).

So any experienced yarn reclaimers got any advice?

(CCA photo by StefwithanF)