It was my birthday yesterday – I spent it with 200 geeks in Wolverhampton, as you do – but since it was my third birthday since starting Recycle This, I’ve run out of birthday-themed ideas to post :)

So to give myself the day off, here’s a cheating post linking back to all the birthday-themed things we’ve discussed before:

• How can I reuse or recycle … birthday cards?
• How can I reuse or recycle … wrapping paper?
• How can I reuse or recycle … balloons?
• How can I reuse or recycle … stale cake?

Anything birthday-themed I’ve missed? If so, leave a comment below or drop me an email – ideas@recyclethis.co.uk – and I’ll use it on the site to bolster our birthday section :)

(Photo by nazreth. I’d need 29 of them. Because I’m greedy. And also 29 now.)

We’ve had an email from Sandi asking:

What can I do with old paint charts, the colour reference ones? I know I can just throw them in with cardboard recycling but I wondered if anyone had any creative ideas for things to do with them instead.

I’ve heard that home style experts recommend keeping a swatch of colours and material samples for your key rooms in your bag when you’re out shopping – so that you can check if things match/work together easily – but I guess that only uses up the tiny square or two of paint that you used, and not the rest.

It’s not quite the same but my dad had a colour chart for his stamp collection when I was a kid and I used to love playing with that – looking at the different shades of each colour and how they gradually turn from one shade to another – and I guess paint charts could be a limited version for that — ideal if you want to raise kids like me who, when asked for their favourite colour, will reply “a matt grey-blue with a subtle hint of green” or “purple-tinged charcoal”. (I would probably jump for OCD-joy if someone gave me a pantone reference guide for my birthday on Sunday. :) )

Other suggestions though? I don’t scrapbook so don’t know but could they be useful for that?

(By the way Sandi, if you’ve got some leftover paint from your DIY work, you may want to check out our post on that very subject and see how it can be redistributed to good causes.)

Estelle – of Monday’s shelf-lining foam query – had a second “how can I recycle…” question:

How to reuse/recycle these small, transparent plastic envelopes that airlines use to put the freebie eyemask and ear plugs in?

I presume they throw them away when used? I recently flew Air France and salvaged a few of them lying about before I disembarked. I expect they have infinite uses. But what are they?

I use them to store small things that would otherwise get lost in my clothing cupboard, like those detachable decorated bra straps, and ‘secret socks’ (undersize socks to wear inside ones shoes). They could be nice for storing bits of jewellery too, perhaps.

Funny that Estelle should use them for tidying her underwear drawer – I’ve got a few in mine as well since multi-pack knickers tend to come in a similar be-poppered bag. We’ve got another envelope like that in the kitchen, to hold take-away menus.

Other suggestions?

We’ve had an email from Estelle, saying:

My local supermarket uses these plasticky foam sheets to line their fruit and veg shelves to protect produce from getting bruised. They simply throw them away in the evening and lay out fresh ones the following day. What a waste!

I have been salvaging them, as I’m packing up to move house. If they are clean (no sticky fruit smears), which they usually are (as the fruit is packaged in yet more plastic), I use them to cushion items to be posted, instead of buying a padded envelope. What other ideas are out there?

They look pretty similar the thin packing foam you get with Ikea furniture to stop them scratching in transit. There are a number of insulating ideas on there – so I guess Estelle’s sheets could be used in the same way.

Any other suggestions though?

We’ve kinda already covered this before – in with spent energy saving bulbs and old lightbulbs in general – but I just spotted this very cool reuse of old strip lights so thought it was worth mentioning more specifically again.

Castor Canadensis, a design studio in Canada, has thought to turn a whole bunch of old tubes into a new light fitting – with an energy efficient bulb inside to provide the actual illumination. (On a similar theme, Ikea used to do “bucket” light shades that you could fill with whatever you liked and old lightbulbs looked cool in there.) I imagine that if you were handy, you could make a flat version for a wall light too – but I don’t know how you’d go about lighting that evenly – any suggestions? A spread of white LEDs maybe?

Anyway, as I said, this is a bit of a retread so there is plenty of recycling/disposal advice for these tubes on the energy-saving bulbs post – but basically, BE CAREFUL! They’re a hazardous material and shouldn’t be thrown into an open van, shattering and sending crap and glass all over the road (as some scrap collectors did on our street a couple of months ago…). Dispose of them properly at your local household waste site.

(Photo courtesy of Castor Canadensis)