We covered audio tapes on the site a long time ago but we’ve had an email from Mark about the cases:

I have someone who wants the cassette tapes, but does not want the boxes they come in.

I am sure the material is the same as CD jewel cases, so would you be able to recycle that?

A number of companies recycle CD jewel cases so they might accept cassette cases too – see our post on the jewel cases for more information. There are also some charities still using audio tapes for spoken newspapers and the like – they might welcome a batch of cases in good condition to replace broken ones, as might libraries who still stock tapes as well as newfangled media.

Aside from that, how about reuses? They could be used as a retro business card case or a credit card wallet. Or to mix the old and the new, you could use them to protect USB keys and memory cards instead of having them lose in your bag.

Any other suggestions?

(Photo by kerppu)

Rhiannon left a message on our suggestions page:

I was wondering if you have any ideas for an empty Tabasco sauce bottle? They are so pretty, but due to the very narrow neck (so that you can only shake out small droplets at a time) it is unsuitable for storing anything that I can think of.

We’ve covered narrow-necked glass bottles on here before – beer bottles or wine bottles and the like, but Tabasco sauce bottles are that bit narrower than most.

I’ve seen the teeny-tiny single serve Tabasco sauce bottle used as jewellery but the normal size bottles are a little too big for that. ;)

They might be useful for liquids that need to be added drop-by-drop – food colouring for example, but that type of thing tends to come in a little bottle with a dropper thing anyway.

The largest standard size (150ml ish?) bottle would make a cute single-stem vase (if I recall correctly, they tend to have a plastic dropper thing in the top but that can usually be pulled out) but the standard size bottle would be too small for everything bar the absolutely thinnest stem.

So suggestions?

We’ve had an email from Lisa, asking:

How can I reuse laundry detergent and fabric softener bottles?

I have a bunch piling up by my washing machine – the ones you pour, not with a spout on the side.

We’ve bulk bought fabric softener in the past and I’ve decanted it into a old, small bottle to make it easier to use – the giant bulk bottle could be stored out of the way in the cellar and the little bottle just refilled once a month. You can do the same thing with big boxes of powder – with handles, those pouring bottles are far easier to carry and use than a big box. They are also moisture tight so if the bottle is dry when you pour in the powder in the first place, it’s less likely to cake than in a cardboard box.

That’s only two bottles though – so what else can you do with them? Carolien Adriaansche makes them into cute creatures and many of the bottles that I see are nice colours or even pearlised, so you could use the plastic to make things like bold jewellery.

Any other suggestions?

Over on the suggestions page, the Eternal*Voyageur asked:

What could I do with those nice Camembert cheese boxes ?

They’re cute little wooden things and in our kitchen, most wooden boxes ended up reused as tea-bag caddies (we have a lot of teabags) – but I suspect these guys may be a little too … cheesy/ammonia-y for that.

Any suggestions for how to freshen up the boxes once the cheese has been eaten?

And what about other reuses?

(Photo by pdphoto

We’ve had a message from Roxi on our old yoghurt pots post, saying:

I have been wondering what I can use a big yogurt can for. I can’t seem to find anything that I need storing in a container like that, so does anyone have any ideas?

The phrase “a big yogurt can” confuses me as I’ve never seen yoghurt for sale in cans – I’m presuming she means the bigger plastic tubs (please correct me if I’m wrong) because while we’ve covered those little yoghurt pots and the triangular ones, we’ve not covered the big ones.

The pots I’m thinking of are about 18-20cm (7-8inches) tall and 8cm (3inches) in diameter at the top. There are some other ones that are similar but a bit more squat. Like other yoghurt pots though, they tend to be made of a flexible, not-too-heavyweight plastic and have a plastic lid – or a foil lid with sometimes a plastic lid to go on top of that for resealing.

The ones with the resealable lids are ripe for reusing as storage in the kitchen because they’re resealable – but the plastic isn’t *that* sturdy so it doesn’t feel like a permanent container.

So any specific reuse suggestions for in the kitchen or elsewhere? And what about pots missing that resealable lid?