We had an email from Tamara last month that got buried in my inbox but I found it again so here it is:

I wanted suggestions on how to recycle pill boxes… like the kind you get with birth control.

I thought I could use one as a wallet, but you see, twelve a year for an indefinite number of years, and a wallet just isn’t going to be a good enough idea for very long. Any suggestions?

I’ve never taken the pill myself (because I can’t take any pills without choking – very annoying but all in my head) but unless US television has lied to me over the years, in the US at least, they come in clam-shell shaped containers which help you keep track of the days. And all americans live in giant mansions or on ranches. And everyone’s problems are solved at neatly after 30 minutes.

So any suggestions for the clam-shells? I’d be tempted to use them to hold beads but suspect every time I opened the clasp they’d go flying across the room – and while that would be funny the first three or four times…

(In the UK, I believe the pilles usually come in blister packs with the days written around the edge. On a related note, we’ve also featured plastic pill and vitamin bottles in the past too.)

A few weeks ago I was at the HQ of BrightBox, a Ruby-on-Rails hosting company/ISP, and they’d just taken delivery of a huge new computer server thing (apologies for getting overly technical there).

Anyway, all the hard discs for it (and there were loads) were packaged up separately so there was a mountain of packaging by the time they’d got it all sorted.

As well as tonnes of corrugated cardboard and the foam packaging stuff I’ll feature next week, they got loads of these little solid moulded plastic trays – dummy drives – and needless to say, my first thoughts were “what a waste!” and “how could I recycle them?”

They would be absolutely ideal underneath plant pots if there weren’t two little holes at one end. I guess I could plug them with something and perhaps paint them at the same time to make them nice for under plants – but even as prolific as our spider plants are, I think I’d still be hard pushed to use them all.

So any suggestions?

The other week when I was trying to find a picture to illustrate the cardboard cup sleeve post, all I could find were these beverage holders. Just everywhere.

Then the next day, I went downstairs and there was one on the sofa. I nearly jumped out of my skin: my internet history had become solid!

Thankfully it wasn’t a Twilight Zone episode which would end with me being beaten to death with a giant Google logo – just John had used it to carry some Chai tea home when we had choley & puree for breakfast (mmm).

I could just fling it in the compost but as always, I’d rather reuse than compost/recycle.

So any suggestions?

We’ve covered the standard food size ones, but what can be done with little tin cans?

John gave a talk at the Manchester Free Software group last month and afterwards we all adjourned to a nearby pub where we found these little nuts cans on our table.

As I’d just been talking about this website to a couple of people, we decided to do a group-think on how we could re-use them but the best we could come up with was a mobile equivalent of a tin-can ‘telephone’ (because they’re more portable).

With a couple of holes punched in the bottom, they’d make cute little plant pots – but only for very little plants – so any other suggestions?

(The cans are about 4cm in diameter and 5cm in height, quite a solid metal and I think they originally had a paper lid so the rim at the top is quite dull, unlike most opened cans.)

Not a usual “How Can I…” post but I had an email from Jan (who comments as twinks) yesterday about the flowers she makes from old plastic drinks bottles and I thought it was worth a mention.

She says:

These were among the first flowers I made from all those plastic bottles that accumulate in and around our lives. They have become much more sophisticated over time with subtle colouring and more shaping, and they LAST for at least 7 years even outside (that’s how long mine have been outside even through brutal Canadian winters).

She’s written about them on her blog and in case anyone fancies giving it a go themselves, I’ve put some instructions from Jan in the comments section (below).

(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.)

• How can I reuse or recycle … plastic milk bottles?
• How can I reuse or recycle … big squash bottles?
• How can I reuse or recycle … shampoo bottles?
• How can I reuse or recycle … plastic bottle tops?
• How can I reuse or recycle … the bumpy bottom of pop bottles?
• How can I reuse or recycle … water cooler bottles?