We’ve had an email from Gillian, asking:

how can i recycle my children’s old teddy bears? i don’t have the heart to chuck them in the land fill. any suggestions?

As a previous owner of a large collection of stuffed toy cats, dogs, bunnies and seals, I can understand the reluctance to throw them away.

If they’re in good condition, I’d be tempted to bung them through the wash then give them away to a charity shop or a refuge for another child to enjoy – but they might not be accepted for re-sale/re-distribution if they’ve been loved a little too much in the past.

How about stripping them down for parts instead? Eyes, stuffing and bits of interesting fabric/fur are always welcome additions to a craft collection – but it might feel a little bit like an autopsy ;)

Any other suggestions?

(Photo by lusi)

We’ve had an email from Megan McDermott, saying:

I just put my Christmas tree up this week and was disappointed to find that three strands of lights aren’t working. I hate to throw them in out, but what can I do with them?

It’s early in the festive season but I suspect a number of people will be hitting the same snag around about now. I’ve seen Christmas tree lights used in all sorts of non-festive places – but they’ve all been working.

Given the amount of little bulbs and wire involved, it’s probably one of those things that is, unfortunately, cheaper to replace than to fix these days – but has anyone got any trouble-shooting tips to get them working again?

But if that doesn’t fix the problem, what other options are there to reuse them either in all or in parts?

(Photo by singhajay)

We’ve had another email from our most prolific suggester of things [Am] (aka Delusion):

Me again! While at my parents I caught my mother about to throw out some very old curlers. I managed to snag them before they reached the rubbish bin and thought they would be a good suggestion idea.

There are two kinds, one are cylinders with elastic looped at the bottom that attaches to the ‘stopper’ part and the other kind are spongy, bendy ones. Any ideas for usage to stop them being dumped in a landfill?

If they’re bendy enough, I imagine the bendy ones would be a great addition to a tool box – you could use them for, say, holding pipes together or tying a garden plant to a support (the foam would stop the wire digging into the stem).

And for the cylinder ones, mini-bird feeders? Or if you could block each end, fill with lavender (or the like) to use as an air-freshner or in a drawer/wardrobe?

Any other ideas?

(Photo by [Am] – thanks :) )

We’ve had an email from Penny:

I have some relatively new – but damaged – strips of vinyl flooring. Can they be recycled and if so how/where?

Penny doesn’t say how big the strips are or whether they’re completely damaged or just in part – if only bits of the strips are damaged, the good bits could be used to cover a desk/work bench to make it easier to wipe clean.

They could also be used in the garden – on top of a compost heap perhaps or if you’ve got an open-bottomed compost bin like ours, underneath it in case you want to move it in the future (we have a piece of wood under ours at the moment but I suspect the flexibility of vinyl flooring would make it easier to drag if needed).

Any other ideas? Anyone know about whether it can actually be recycled?

(I added “lino” (as in Linoleum) to the subject since I suspect a lot of re-uses would apply to either.)

(Photo by Maffu)

We’ve had an email from Andy Whittington about a subject that is close to my own heart (and nose):

We have two new feline housemates, and the accompanying cat litter with waste, does anyone have any idea how I can reuse/recycle this after the solid waste has been removed, and is the sawdust product more eco friendly than the porous stone chip version?

Congratulations on the new additions to your household Andy and welcome to the world of sitting on the floor because they’ve snagged the best chairs and refuse to be moved.

As I say on our sister site Compost This, it’s tempting to compost wood-based litter but poop parasites can cause a problem. Our garden is too small for multiple compost heaps but my mum and dad have a heap they just use for litter and accept that it’ll take ages to break down and not use it on their veg plot.

If the poo is, well, perfectly contained, then it’s less of a problem because it can be disposed of separately and the absorbed urine might actually help your compost heap because it’s nitrogen based. Just be careful to keep the heap balanced with other materials if you want it to breakdown in a reasonable time-frame.

I don’t know for sure about the eco-friendliness of the wood-based versus clay ones (does anyone else?) but I suspect (read: hope) that the former is a waste byproduct of the wood industry. It is also less likely to cause clumping issues for the cats. We’ve also tried recycled paper-based litters – they worked alright, just left the room smelling of damp paper – and if poo-free, could be composted like the wood ones.

Any other thoughts? Anyone know if the clay-based ones be used as aggregate in concrete or anything like that?

(Photo by mzacha)