We’ve had an email from Katerina. She’s been busy posting lots of useful comments around the site lately – including on the pump action spray page – but she’s got a suggestion that’s just a little different from that:

My boyfriend has an eczema and he uses a lot of emollient, creams and liquid soap that comes in pump dispensers, some specialised emollients come from pharmacist in VERY big bottles with pumps. As you can imagine – he goes through a lot of them, and I think of the ways to re-use them.

I keep dreaming of how good would it be to be able to have stations in pharmacies and supermarkets to re-fill your pump dispensers (but obviously – this is too much to ask for).

The two organic shops near us allow you to refill Ecover pump bottles in store with more of the liquid soap/washing-up liquid – but I don’t know if you’d be able to refill other random bottles.

So any other suggestions?

(Photo by nyuszika)

We’ve had an email from Michelle Grogan:

With the upcoming smoking ban in public places* almost on our doorstep, I was wondering if anyone might know anything about recycling ashtrays and if this can be done in a way to raise money for charity?

I suspect some will be yoinked by members of staff or regulars for use in their own homes but does anyone know about any recycling schemes for Michelle?

Or any fun reuses if anyone manages to snag a handful or more from their local?

(* From 1st July, smoking will be banned in all enclosed public spaces – including pubs, restaurants, private clubs and places of work – in England bringing the country in line with similar bans already in place in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.)

(Photo by levi_sz)

A few weeks ago now, we had a weekend away (to Lindisfarne – was great) and when we returned, we were greeted by a big bundle of wires in the middle of our garden path. A neighbour had found – and disassembled – a broken sunbed while we were away and the wires were leftover. He knows we like using odd things so left them out for us.

So I took them in and sorted them by colour – but don’t know what to do with them. They seem to be quite thick – but malleable – copper, coated in pretty tough plastic. They mostly range in length from around 50cm (20″) to about 1m (40″), but there are some shorter ones at about 20cm (8″) too.

The wires look pretty flexible and strong but I don’t know if they’re bendy enough to use for something like macrame – at least fine knotting – but I like the idea of using them from something crafty. So any suggestions?

Or any more practical ideas?

We’ve had an email from Andrew Whittington:

These are the industrial carrying bags, usually made from a plastic woven material with four strong carrying handles for a crane or fork lift truck to move large quantities of building materials such as sand and stone. These are being seen more and more delivered to domestic homes, and are seen as a disposable item and the companies are not interested in having them back.

At the moment I have one in the garden and i’m using it as a tempory compost bin until I can make my own, however the plastic is starting to rot into tiny pieces, any other ideas what I can do with it?

I’ve been seeing these about more and more too and would probably go for the compost thing or using the material for hanging basket (etc) lining – but I’m sure the latter doesn’t make best use of the bags and would probably have the same rotting problem. So any ideas?

I’ve had another email from Sally Harrop:

We have a large amount of student furniture (beds, desks, lamps, chairs etc) to dispose of – 250 rooms worth. Can anyone suggest anywhere this may be usable?

Sally is based in Bradford and since I’m down the road in Leeds, I’ve already suggested a few local furniture charities to her: CHASBradford, Emmaus Leeds, and Poverty Aid. I know there are other smaller ones too but these seem to be three of the biggest furniture charities in the West Yorkshire area, so are probably more likely to be able to handle this large amount of furniture.

University accommodation departments and hotels around the country, indeed around the world, must find themselves in this position quite a lot. The obvious answer is for them to keep using the furniture until the end of its life but that’s not always realistic in these situations for one reason or another. So feel free to suggest any links to furniture reusing/recycling charities – especially ones that can handle large amounts of stock in one go – and say what geographical area they cover, in case anyone else in Sally’s position needs some inspiration.

(Photo by moria)