There is a lot of chatter in the US and the UK at the moment about putting a “tax” on plastic carrier bags to stop shops giving them out willy-nilly.

There is already a charge in place in Ireland and I read something the other day that explained while the amount of carrier bags given out by shops has dropped dramatically, the number of bin liners and garbage bags sold has increased because so many people used to reuse the carriers in the bin. That makes it feel like less of a victory – and it’s not exactly a huge victory to start with.

The thought of buying something to use to aid throwing stuff away seems really counter-intuitive to my brain but without using bin liners or the like, we’re constantly having to scrub out our kitchen bin with pretty harsh chemicals – we’re not big wasters, we compost as much as we can and most packaging we get is recyclable, so usually the only things that end up in there are pretty yacky.

So is there a line between disposable plastic bags and endless bleachy scrubbing? I thought about newspapers – a sheet as a throwaway liner would probably be fine for all but the wettest stuff – but since we don’t buy them either, that’s not an option really – what is?

We’ve had an email from Lou:

There is a load of really heavy old rope in our garage, god knows where it came from. It’s a bit mossy but seems in ok condition, we just don’t know what to use it for because it’s 4″ thick!

Unless you’ve got a big boat to tie to a quayside or something, I imagine you’d be best reusing it as a weight or a border in the garden – if you ever have to cover anything with plastic sheeting, it could be used stretched out or curled up to stop it blowing away or to stop lawns creeping into flower beds.

Any other ideas?

We’ve had an email from Janey:

What can I make a lampshade out of? I’ve got the cable and fitting from an old lamp and want to make something cute for my home office.

While it’s not specifically recycled stuff, I saw a paper cutout lamp shade on Craft last week which I thought was a great gem of an idea that could easily be adapted for recycled paper or the like, and customised regarding what shapes are cut from the paper. I wonder if it would be safe enough to use a big old fizzy drink/soda bottle for the inner layer… I suspect not but I’m overly cautious regarding electricity – anyone know for sure?

There have been a number of “make it into a light shade” suggestion in reply to posts on Recycle This over the years and I’ll try to add some links to those in the comments below – but the one that most obviously springs to mind is using photo negatives.

Any other ideas? Anyone know any safety guidelines to minimise the risk of fire/melting?

We’ve already covered whole mirror tiles but Claire has asked:

Can a broken mirror go in the glass recycling bin?

I suspect not – most glass banks I’ve seen stipulate they can only take standard bottles and jars, not sheet glass or pyrex or the like.

While there is obviously a safety concern (wear tough gloves, be careful), you could reuse the pieces in crafts and around the home. Like the whole mirror tiles, big pieces made safe could be used to reflect more light around the greenhouse or garden, hand-size pieces could be used for pocket mirrors (I’ve seen pictures of people who’ve used foam or soft modelling clay around the back/edges to make them safer and more durable) and little pieces can be used for mosaics.

Any other suggestions?

We’ve had an email from Yvonne:

What can we do with a box of old double bed sheets, duvet covers and valances which we don’t use any more because we’ve got a king size bed?

The first thing I’d suggest would be to pass them on – if they’re still in ok condition, give them to a charity/thrift shop or local shelter, or offer them on Freecycle. Bedding, particularly duvet covers, seems to be pretty popular in the charity shops that I go to seem to.

Aside from that, there are a whole lot of reuses for bedding because at the end of the day, it’s just flat lengths of fabric – and usually 100% cotton (or at least cotton-heavy) fabric at that. Rag ruggers often use bed sheets/covers because they’re cheap & available, and the old solution was, after turning the outside edges in, to use them for handkerchiefs.

Any other suggestions?