John was restringing his ukulele (not a euphemism) the other day when he flung the old strings at me, saying “how can I recycle this?” It was a good question ;)

We’ve covered metal guitar strings on the site before but not their nylon counterparts. A lot of the suggestions for the metal ones were jewellery related and I guess that would work here – the thinner ones will be perfect for covering with beads.

Also, like everything else even vaguely string-related in the house, one of the strings immediately became a cat toy – John tied a metal hoop to one end that, as far as the cats were concerned, then jiggled about of its own accord. OMG! HAUNTED HOOP! KILL! KILL! KILL!

Any other suggestions? We get four strings every time John changed them and we know loads of other people who play the uke too so it would be great to reuse them all up.

(By the way, John and I started a fun, silly project late last year, singing Wikipedia articles accompanied by a ukelele: Ukepedia. We’ve not had time to record all the ones we’ve come up with but a few of our friends have – the “Bedfordshire Clanger” and “List of WCW Hardcore Champions” videos are my favourites :) )

Helms has asked:

How can I recycle my baby’s sippy cup? The no-spill cups that young children use before learning to drink out of a “grown up’s” cup.

Well, whenever I see those cups, I always wipe at the Ribena down my tshirt and think “I should get one of those!” – so that’s one answer: give them to clumsy adults ;)

Aside from that, if they’re still in a good condition then I’m sure they’d be welcomed by charity shops – or organisations like the National Childbirth Trust (NCT), which have “nearly new” sales for new parents to pick up bargains.

As for actual recycling, it would depend on what they’re made out of. Most I’ve seen are plastic and if it’s obvious what type of plastic they’re made from, then you might be able to recycle them with your normal plastic waste. Searching around now though, I see that there is also a growing trend to have them made from stainless steel with plastic handles – and mixed material items can a nightmare to recycle.

Any other suggestions?

• For more baby related items, see Recycle This’s guide to Recycling and Reusing Baby Stuff

We’ve had a message from Amy:

I have a large box of spare buttons, all odd, different colours, different sizes, the ones you get on items of clothes in case you lose one.

Does anyone have any useful suggestions for re-using? Looking forward to your suggestions

Woo! buttons! I love spare buttons! :)

And they’re a hot crafting item at the moment too: I love the idea of button bouquets, but there are also button coasters (perfect for lots of less exciting buttons), collages and using them as embellishments for boring shoes or tops.

My favourite pairs of earrings are made from buttons too: before I trained myself to wear dangly ones, I just glued by favourite buttons onto stud findings but now I’ve got a pair that are simply three colourful buttons on headpins – I wear them all the frickin’ time (even now as I type this ;) ).

Around the home, I’ve seen them used instead of gravel in clear fake-flower vases or on top of the soil in plant pots — and if you can’t think of a reuse for them, put them in a bag on eBay and button-cravers like me will snap them up ;)

Any other suggestions?

(Photo by nkzs)

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 an email from Marsha asking:

where or how to you recycle old bowling balls? They are petrol based. estimates of at least 100,000 are just put in land fills. thanks

Ooh, good question.

If they’re still in good condition, I’d offer them on Freecycle or to the local bowling alley – if they can’t use them because all theirs need to be a particular brand or whatever, they might know a customer who could use them.

If they’re cracked or what not, I’d still be tempted to offer them on Freecycle – for people wanting them for a fun decoration (a GIANT paperweight perhaps ;) ) or for a craft project.

Actual recycling will depend on exactly what type of plastic it is, for example, some balls are made out of urethane and that is cost-prohibitive to recycle – so it’ll probably be easier to think of good reuses than get the plastic back into the system.

So reuse suggestions?

(Photo by bas3ssen)