We’ve had an email from Paul Smith asking:

I’m really interested in how one would recycle a yoga mat? One of the old school, pvc based ones, not the eco friendly one (which I have now).

If Paul means the type of mat I think he means, they’re a long thin piece of foam, about 6ft long and 2ft wide (185cm by 66cm ish) and about half an inch (1cm) thick. Depending on the requirements and the thickness/flexibility of the foam, they can either be rolled up like a camping bedroll or are left flat (the ones at my uni gym were like that).

So any suggestions for reuses? Or are there any recycling options if somewhere (like a gym) was getting rid of them in bulk?

Paul doesn’t say what condition his yoga mat is in – some of the ones at the uni were bashed to smeg at the sides and going thin where they’d been doubled up – so re-use suggestions for falling apart ones would be good too, just in case.

(Photo by bharat – I couldn’t find a picture without a ball in it too, so just imagine that’s not there :) )

John used to play drums back in the day and has just started to pick it up again so has been cleaning/refurbishing some of his old kit.

He used to specialise in hitting them awfully hard with sticks so the “skins” are a bit knackered – especially since he uses brushes on them now, therefore needs them coated so they sound right … or something (my musical skills begin and end with the swanee/slide whistle).

Anyway, we’ve now got a couple of old drumheads lying around the house now – they’re not torn, just not worn out. For those as musically challenged as me, they’re, well, like floppy-ish frisbees: round and flat (funnily enough), with the edges curved around about 1.5cm (3/4 inch). The skin is thin plastic and, as I said floppy.

Presumably with all the musicians out there, there are thousands of these things discarded every week – so any suggestions what people can do with them? And what about if the skin is torn – any suggestions then?

(Photo by Vierdrie)

Had an email from Tom Beaumont, who has found some out of date condoms in the back of his bathroom cabinet.

I don’t fancy risk using them for their intended purpose for obvious reasons but thought you might be able to come up with some other suggestions!

The first thing that springs to my mind is testing whether the boiled condom over a phone box thing is an urban myth or not – but that’s not terribly practical (because a. it’s pointless really and b. phone boxes are hard to find these days).

Any better suggestions?

(Photo by Wazari)

Had an email from Cadan ap Tomos:

My mother is a knitting fanatic. She knits all the time. Yesterday she had a bag full of wool she didn’t want anymore. She was about to throw them away, until I came and said: “We can recycle that!” and grabbed it out of her hands. Well, actually, she gave it
to me to put in the bin, but i snuck it up to my bedroom instead! So I went to your wonderful website, to find that the item was not there! So, here is the suggestion: How can I reuse or recycle: old wool?

So any suggestions for Cadan? I’m guessing they’re not full balls of wool so ideas for scraps as well as long lengths would be helpful.

(Photo by Noche)

With the mass move to digital cameras these days, the old cameras have become as obsolete as the film canisters.

Nicola Dickinson has emailed us on this very subject – how can the cameras themselves be recycled? Or, I guess, reused?

A lot of old electronics (like phones and computers) are collected for charity and shipped overseas but I don’t know if this would be happening with cameras too because they don’t seem as “essential” (inverted commas because the others aren’t really essential in most situations) and they’re useless without the film and developing infrastructure etc.

So any ideas on how they can avoid being landfill?

(Photo by AAD)