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?

Lucia of JBLarts has sent us a bit of an obscure one:

Such a strange thing, you may say, but I have a good quantity of meteorological lattice balloons: any suggestion on what doing of them, apart fulling them with air to make huge balls to play with in a big garden? Huge snow/lattice-men?

I tried to cut the lattice to use it in some other way, but it was not so easy to maintain the form of the cut pieces.

Any ideas?

I don’t think I’ve ever seen one so I can’t really offer any suggestions. Anyone else got any ideas?

(Oh, and on the subject of balloons: we’ve covered deflated helium ones in the past too.)

Following on from Tuesday’s post about recycling old jewellery, I’ve had an email from Jane Eldershaw about recycling junk to make new jewellery.

Jane loves making jewellery out of junk and found items – and has even written a book about her creations.

I love this type of stuff – and not just because it justifies me keeping loads of random little things to turn into jewellery or whatever one day. I think my favourite piece of Jane’s is the yellow peg necklace below and the more delicate key chain above – but the pencil necklace is very fun too. I’ve only featured necklaces here but Jane also makes bracelets, earrings and all sorts of things so if you’re interested, check out her site – http://junkjewelry.blogspot.com/

We’ve had an email from Beth:

My husband installed replacement windows in our living room last weekend to replace single-paned, leaky originals. We now have large storm windows and wood-framed glass (non-tempered, I believe) that seems a shame to just break and throw away. Looking for ideas to recycle them ourselves into something useful or someone to give them to that could make something out of them.

I’ve blogged about it but you can’t see the actual window in those pics, just the storms.

Any thoughts, ideas, or suggestions?

When we had our drafty, single-pane windows replaced a few years ago, I wanted to keep them to use in the garden – to make a greenhouse or cold frame – but the fitters had to pretty much smash every pane (and most of the walls around them) to get them out.

A cold frame is probably one of the easiest things to do with them – if you don’t want to do that, someone on your local Freecycle group probably will – but does anyone have any other suggestions?

(Photo by blatje)

Just an information post about a new campaign by Marie Curie Cancer Care:

I am writing to ask whether you would be interested in supporting Marie Curie Cancer Care during our diamond anniversary year. The charity provides high quality nursing, totally free, to give people with terminal cancer and other illnesses the choice of dying at home, supported by their families.

The charity was founded 60 years ago with the donation of a diamond engagement ring. Given that 2008 is our diamond anniversary, it seemed the perfect time to launch a jewellery recycling scheme.

The recycling scheme is straightforward. We are asking the general public to donate unwanted jewellery. Anything is acceptable – damaged pieces, odd ear rings, stopped watches, snapped chains, costume jewellery or the real stuff.

All the donations are processed by a professional recycling company. They hand sort every donation and either sell on the valuable pieces, or break-up/melt-down damaged items, and the residue is sold to a specialist scrap merchant.

The income generated will go towards paying for more Marie Curie nursing hours.

There are collection boxes in Laura Ashley and Marie Curie stores, but within the UK, you can also send donations direct to a free post address:

Marie Curie Cancer Care
Freepost
Central Recycling

(Photo by angood)