I came across the recipe the other day and thought mmm – potato crisps made from potato peelings rather than the potato themselves – the skin contains loads of fibre and it’s usually the tastiest bit of the ‘tato too, so win all around.

Our potato peelings usually end up in the stock box in the freezer – although when we finally get chickens, they might end up in their treat bucket instead (there seems to be some disagreement about whether you can feed chickens raw potato – some say yes, some say no, although everyone says don’t feed them green bits).

What do you do with your potato peelings? They’re a welcome, quick-to-rot-down addition to a compost bin if nothing else. Are there any practical rather than culinary uses for them, like how banana skins can be used to polish leather? I suspect the starchy residue will get in a way for a lot of things but you never know…

We’ve had an email from Hester, asking:

what can I do with a teapot with a broken spout?

You could give gluing it back together a go — it’s not quite as much of a safety worry as say, gluing a broken handle back onto a cup/mug but there is still the risk of scalding if it comes off again at an inopportune moment.

So other less hazardous suggestions? Almost needless to say, teapots make very fun plant pots or utensil/pen pots. Depending how much of the spout remains, you could use it as an indoor watercan too.

The china/pottery from completely broken teapots can be used for drainage at the bottom of plantpots – although if the lid is intact and you’re buying another similar size teapot to replace it, keep the lid as a mix-match spare.

Any other suggestions?

We’ve had an email from Alana:

The kibble I get my dog has switched from being in paper bags to plastic ones. What can I do with them now?

You may still be able to recycle them – the plastic cat food bags we’ve got are labelled as recyclable (although not actually saying what type of plastic they are, just that “most councils accept them for recycling” – a great example of the unhelpful lack of information that Simon was complaining about the other day – I suspect they’ll be LDPE, ie number 4 plastic). Check the packaging for similar (although hopefully more helpful) recycling marks.

As for reuses, they’re pretty strong plastic and sometimes with a zip lock seal at the top so can be used for a range of airtight/waterproof storage purposes. An idea for smaller bags might be to decant washing powder from cardboard boxes into the bags to stop it absorbing moisture from the atmosphere. Bigger, dog food size bags, could be used in the garden – a seasonal idea might be to use them for leaf mulch. Staying in the garden, the bags could also be sliced open to use as plastic sheeting to protect crops over winter/discourage weed growth (although with the usual caveat that plastic that isn’t specifically designed for outdoor use tends to break down in the sunshine).

Other ideas?

Even though we use them in addition to sponge and cloths, we seem to go through washing up brushes pretty quickly, usually because the bristles all flatten out rendering them somewhat ineffectual at reaching hard to reach bottoms of glasses etc.

We keep a couple around for “dirty” cleaning jobs, such as de-muddifying trainers, where the flattened bristles do enough but what can we do with the others?

And is there a super-invincible kind of brush that lasts longer, thus reducing our constant need to replace them?

(Photo by laeste)

We’ve had an email from Steve asking:

How can I reuse or recycle one-cup filter coffee packs?

I think Steve means these – little plastic pots that you put on the top of your cup/mug and fill with boiling water. The water then seeps through the filter-coffee-filter sandwich at the bottom et voila!, a cup of filter coffee without needing a machine.

I think the first thing to suggestion here, as in many cases, is see if you can stop or reduce using them. I realise they’re a handy substitute for offices where there aren’t machines or anything like that, but you can get reusable one-cup filter things and cafetieres/plungers aren’t expensive either. Both of those option cut down your waste by loads and it’s also easier to reuse the coffee grounds from them too.

If you do have to use them though, it’s of course better to reuse them or recycle them instead of just binning them. I wonder if it would be possible to refill them – you might have to replace the upper filter as well as the coffee though – and that would probably be so much faff that it wouldn’t be worth it.

As for other reuses, like nearly everything vaguely pot shaped, you could use it as a small plant pot – the filter at the the bottom would allow drainage. Any other suggestions?