Leigh of the scarves had another question – what to do with “name tags/nametag holders”:

you get them everywhere, but I have nothing to do with them!

I don’t know whether Leigh means conference name labels – either the pockets for use on lanyards (which we covered last year) or ones with safety pins on the back – or proper, personalised name tags for people working in public-facing positions and the like — so let’s do both.

When I used to organise conferences and events, I collected any badges leftover at the end of the day and used the pockets again for the next event – I suspect I wasn’t alone in doing that, especially in cash-strapped academia. So that’s a reduce idea: leave your conference name badge on the reception table at the end of the day and it’ll probably get reused again. The same thing might work for solid name tags if they’re first name only and you’ve got a reasonably common name.

But what about reuses? Any ideas?

Lizzy has left us a message saying:

Hello, right now I am staring at a metal central bit of a ringbinder, and wondering how to repurpose it.

I had a leather diary with it in the centre, with the pages on it. When trying to write on the left-hand page, the metal rings got in the way.

I am in the process of turning the leather part into a handbag, and am more successfully using the pages, now being held together by a treasury tag, but what to do with the six-ringed central metal bit…any suggestions?

I thought we’d cover this already but I think I’m getting it confused with the spiral of a spiral notebook.

So any suggestions?

• How can I reuse or recycle other random bits of stationery?: see our paper & stationery category for more ideas!

I was packing up some parcels the other day and so I didn’t lose it amongst all my mess, I slipped the sellotape onto my wrist like a big bangle.

Ooh, I thought, I bet once I’ve used up all the sticky tape, I could cover this in something like fabric, wool or wire and make a proper fun bangle.

And then I thought, hmm, I wonder what else I could use it for? And if only I knew of a website where I could put that question out to the wonderfully creative world and see what ideas they could come up with. If only!

All the ones I have are cardboard so they could just go in the recycling bin – or the compost heap since they’re usually not inky or anything – but I do like reuses. So, any ideas?

And what about those tiny plastic ones you get on Scotch tape rolls?

(Photo by hberends)

We’ve had a message on our Suggestions page from Ruti (who, incidentallty, have left hundreds of useful ideas all over the site over the last few days – thanks Ruti!):

What to do with laminated signs? I work in a 6th form College and various signs etc. are produced as A3 or A4 and laminated. However, eventually some details become out of date.

What could I do with these? there are only so many placemats / craft messy mats anyone could need!

For some reason, I can’t think of anything other than using white ones to make snowflake decorations – but the end of January is possibly a bit late for that type of thing.

So any other suggestions?

We’ve already covered recycling or reusing dead ones but Trevor has a question about recycling schemes for pens that still work:

Here at the School of Health Studies we get inundated with promotional pens from various medical and drug companies.

Most of these pens never get used and just fill up our desks draws. Is there any way of recycling them so that they can be used in third world schools or something?

I suspect most medical and drug companies aren’t going to pay any attention to a request for “no more pens, thanks” so it makes sense to want to pass them on to someone who’ll use them.

So does anyone know of any schemes to send school supplies to third world countries – or deprived ones closer to home?

(Photo by Zonnekoe)