John bought some apples from a supermarket a couple of weeks ago. He didn’t want a full pre-packed bag and the loose ones were bruised and icky because it was late in the day, so ended up getting four in a shaped foam tray. Said apples got eaten and said foam tray got left waiting for its next use.

We’ve already looked at flat foam veg trays – and there have been some good suggestions that would work well with shaped trays like these (especially the paint-mixing ones and the packing material ones) – but is there anything else that can particularly take advantage of the curvy bowl shapes?

We’ve had an email from Annie about a little find of hers:

I’m not sure what to call this, its a little basket that was in a tub of feta cheese (I rescued it out of the bin!). About 10 cms high and with a ready made hook on the back. There has to be a use for it…

I would worry about using it for heavy things because the hook on the back doesn’t look too sturdy but I would guess there are plenty of holding-things ideas – perhaps tying a loop of string through the loop and hanging it from a washing line for pegs? Using as a (non-hanging) desk tidy?

Anyone got any more creative ideas, particularly using it for things other than just holding stuff? Ideas to take advantage of the squares in the side and the little holes in the bottom maybe?

We’ve had an email from “nannaspoon”:

Can I recycle the boxes that baby powered milk comes in? Cow & Gate comes in a laminated cardboard outer case, plastic lid and silver-foil covering on the inside of the box which is non-detachable. What should I put it in with – cardboard, plastic or foil?

Oooh, that’s a good question: I suspect if you can pull the lid off – and it’s a type of plastic covered by your recycling people – then that’s ok to be thrown in with plastics but does anyone know what the deal is with foil-lined cardboard?

Cow and Gate claims this new packaging is better for the environment that their old tins and they “use recycled materials wherever possible” – but they’ve not got back to me about how the tubs can be recycled post-consumer. (UPDATE: they have done now. Their response is in the comments.)

Any ideas for reuses?

There’s something about the combination of garlic, parmesan and salt on flat garlic breads that I absolutely love. I think it might be the cheese and the salt – and perhaps the garlic.

Because we don’t always have time to make our own, we have either a flat garlic bread or a frozen pizza about once a month – but they’re packaging nightmares: the bread/pizza sits on top of a round foam base, covered in shrink-wrapped plastic and in a cardboard box.

The cardboard can be recycled but the plastic and foam not so much. Any ideas for reusing the foam bases?

(If you’re not familiar with them, they’re flat, round discs about 25cm (10″) in diameter – but bigger ones are used for bigger, fresh pizzas. The foam is about 4mm thick (1/8th of an inch) and not bendy – it snaps rather than bends. Ours also usually have a slight (ahem) garlicky odour which might impact the uses.)

We’ve had an email from John B:

I was recently bought some beer which came in stone/clay bottles. Having now drunk all the beer I am looking for something to do with the bottles. I wanted to reuse them for home brew but I am unable to get the corks back in as my corking machine only works with wine bottles.

The only thing I can think of is to break them up for crocks in plant pots but this seems like a waste of all their bottliness. Any suggestions?