Had an email from Dave England asking: What do you do with smoke alarms that have low-level radiation sources in them?

He went on to explain that he’d heard that they should be replaced every ten years and his smoke alarms are now at least ten years old so he wants to know what he should do with them.

Ours are pretty new so we’ve not had this issue yet – but has anyone else come up against it?

According to Wikipedia, we’re looking at “a tiny mass of radioactive americium-241” in smoke detectors that use ionization and while Americium is widely used, like other similar elements (Actinides), it can have an impact on the environment – but there are few guidelines for disposing of old smoke alarms.

So, does anyone know if (and how) can they be safely recycled? Or are there are any safe reuses?

(Photo by cancsajn)

It’s been *slightly* windy in the UK over the past few days and there are lots of shattered slate tiles on the pavements around here.

My mum and dad, who live on the battered west coast, have spotted similar blown off tiles around them but the debris tends to be red roofing tiles rather than slate ones.

These tiles tend to be ridged or curved and around an inch thick – so not useful for all the flat things slate tiles can do, like be coasters. They’re also a rougher texture so can’t be used as mini-blackboards or anything like that.

So, presuming this is quite a common issue around the country at the moment, what can you do with blown down roofing tiles? Whole ones might be able to go back on the roof but what about broken ones?

(Photo by tome213)

This is another of those that I can’t believe we haven’t thought about yet: printer/photocopier paper.

It can, obviously, be recycled: as far as I know, most doorstep recycling schemes offer paper recycling and in all the places I’ve worked, there has been a green bin in the office for at least recycling white paper products, if not all different types like brown envelopes and newspaper.

However, I know not all offices are so green-focused without prompting – does anyone have any good strategies for getting employers to starting caring about this type of thing? Or know of any companies that offer recycling services to business?

And what about ideas for reuse? If something had only had printing on one side, I would either use the other side for printing drafts or make the blank side into scrap notepads (held together at the top with a bulldog clip). But what about other suggestions for reuses, including for when both sides have been printed on? And what confidential matter that can’t spend the next three months on the back of a notepad?

(Oh, and we got mentioned in the Guardian yesterday – if you’re here after reading that mini-article, hello! And if you want to know how to recycle said copy of the Guardian, we’ve plenty of ideas for recycling and reusing old newspapers.)

A couple of weeks ago, my mum and dad’s tv died after seventeen years of faithful service.

Before I could say “ooh, I wonder how that could be reused…”, they whisked it off to the tip for the dutiful tip people to (hopefully) send it for recycling.

But still the question remains in my head – how could an old tv set be re-used? And does anyone know of any recycling schemes if one’s local “household waste sorting site” doesn’t offer the service?

(Photo by eidesign)

The moulded polystyrene post last week reminded me that we haven’t thought about that other packaging staple yet – bubble wrap.

The most obvious re-use is to, well, just re-use it for its intended purpose again – but has any one got any interesting suggestions other than just packing up items for the mail or for storage?

And what if some dastardly scamp (usually me in our house) has popped all the bubbles? It loses its padding and protective qualities but I bet it can still be used for other things. Suggestions?

(Photo by fish)