A couple of weeks ago, Ann posted a comment about “Bracelets with a Conscience” that she makes out of “soda can tabs”.
She sent me a few pictures of the bracelets recently and I think a great idea.
But what else can be done with those tabs? Any suggestions?
(We covered the cans themselves back in the day – over two years ago, gosh! that’s an eon in internet time!)
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I’d been over to the HQ of Ruby-on-Rails ISP BrightBox and discovered a load of computer parts packaging.
As well as the plastic trays that we featured the other week, there were a number of sheets of cardboard-backed bumpy foam – which is apparently called waffle foam but, if the picture’s not clear, it’s the stuff that people usually use for soundproofing.
These sheets aren’t that big about 15cm by 45cm so you’d need a LOT to do any serious soundproofing and could be kept for future packaging purposes – but I suspect they might have so more fun reuses.
The cardboard on the back limits it to dry/non-fire related things – I guess it could be pulled off but that seems to provide it with a lot of structure.
Any suggestions?
From the subject up there, you may guess that I don’t really know how to describe what Sarah is asking about. Her email should be a bit more informative:
I have a lot of these plastic bubbles that holds those cheap toys that you get out of those quarter machines in the front of grocery stores. My local grocery store give the kids free “HEB bucks” that they then use to collect the plastic bubbles from the skill crane, inside the bubble is a sticker worth a certain amount of points…. ANYWAY, we get TONS of them.
Every once in a while the store will trade a certain amount of bubbles in for those really nifty reusable cloth grocery bags for free.
However I was trying to think of OTHER creative ways to use them as well. I think one good use would be as storage containers for your condiments when bringing your lunch to work or school. Any other ideas?
I love that the shop already has a recycling scheme for them – yay that shop – but they do seem like one of those things that would be great to reuse.
Depending on how water tight they are, I guess you could use them to make snow globes or, conversely, teeny mini-greenhouses.
Other suggestions though?
(Photo of Sarah’s pod collection by the lady herself)
We’ve had an email from Chelsea, who has very nicely been pimping this site to her family:
I told my mom about this site and she asked if there was anything about coffee cans. She saves all the ones she has, and just uses them for storing nails and such. Any better ideas?
In the UK, most coffee tends to come in either jars or bags but we’ve got some old Illy cans knocking around from before John discovered our fab local coffee supplier, the Just Coffee People (if you’re in Leeds, you should really try it – coffee fans tell me it’s great from there and we also heart the tea – and if you read the about page you’ll see it’s a great Social Firm too. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes..). The Illy cans either came with a screw top lid or a rubber cap, depending on the size of the can, so have way more reuses than a standard more-difficult-to-reseal food can.
Like Chelsea’s mum, we use them for nails etc in the cellar, storing other teas & coffees in the kitchen, a pen pot in the office upstairs and I’ve got two in front of me in the living room right now working as money boxes for our spare change. I’ve also used the screw on lids as saucers under plant pots – they’re silver and quite deep so look fun.
Any other suggestions?
Following my post at the start of the month about Jan turning pop bottles into flowers, Jennifer Houck got in touch about some art she’s made out of old rubbish.
I have made quite a few things out of plastic bottles and caps. Our recycler only comes once a month, and will not take bottle caps. So with overflowing amounts of caps and bottles, I decided to see what I could do with this surplus.
This picture she says is playing with colour and texture of the original bottles but in other photos she sent, she painted the bottoms of clear bottles with marble-effect paint – which I think highlighted the cool, and often pretty shapes, of the bases themselves.
She’s also made these really fun figures out of old bottles – using the curved shape of the bottles to full advantage on the bug’s wings and chicken’s tail – and papier mache from old magazines. I like them a lot and am very tempted to give it a go myself.
(Are you, or anyone you know, making art by reusing/recycling random old stuff? If so, let me know and I’ll feature it here.)
