We’ve had another email from Maja:

Due to my spine illness, I have to wear an orthopaedic corset (looks exactly like this one apart from the pattern,because mine are black with colorful polka dots).

Each year I have to get a new one, because the whole body is developing and they are getting too small. I can’t donate them because each one is customized to the user. How can I recycle it?

For actually recycling it, I’d ask the manufacturer if they have any recycling schemes in place – they might be able to recycle the plastic with off-cuts from during manufacturing, or something.

But as for reuses…? The shape makes me think of a dress form (a dress makers’ dummy) but it obviously only covers a small part of the body so won’t be useful for that much – attached to a stand I guess it could be useful for skirts and the like, and, of course, it would be perfect for belly chains and belts (although admittedly they don’t really need that much modelling ;) )

Any other suggestions?

I put together a “Recycling Baby Stuff” guide the other day and I was surprised how few entries we had in our baby-stuff category.

The biggest surprising omission was cloth diapers/nappies – we’ve covered disposable ones but not the already more eco-friendly cloth version.

Obviously they’re reusable – that’s the point of them – but that doesn’t mean they’re reusable forever: they might wear out at critical points or the fabric become rough/otherwise unsuitable for baby-wear. And of course, the thing about babies is they have a tendency to grow and eventually learn how to use the toilet too – so unless they’re going to siblings or similar, there will be leftovers.

Old-school folded flat square ones obviously have as many reuses as an other square of fabric: one very close reuse might be to cut them up into smaller squares and use them as cloth wipes, a green alternative to toilet paper.

But what about shaped? Any other great reuses for flat ones?

We’ve had a message from Roxi on our old yoghurt pots post, saying:

I have been wondering what I can use a big yogurt can for. I can’t seem to find anything that I need storing in a container like that, so does anyone have any ideas?

The phrase “a big yogurt can” confuses me as I’ve never seen yoghurt for sale in cans – I’m presuming she means the bigger plastic tubs (please correct me if I’m wrong) because while we’ve covered those little yoghurt pots and the triangular ones, we’ve not covered the big ones.

The pots I’m thinking of are about 18-20cm (7-8inches) tall and 8cm (3inches) in diameter at the top. There are some other ones that are similar but a bit more squat. Like other yoghurt pots though, they tend to be made of a flexible, not-too-heavyweight plastic and have a plastic lid – or a foil lid with sometimes a plastic lid to go on top of that for resealing.

The ones with the resealable lids are ripe for reusing as storage in the kitchen because they’re resealable – but the plastic isn’t *that* sturdy so it doesn’t feel like a permanent container.

So any specific reuse suggestions for in the kitchen or elsewhere? And what about pots missing that resealable lid?

We’ve had an email from ReuseRecycleMom‘s Von, saying:

I am recycling my grandmother’s old tea cups into bird feeders. I thought I’d share….

I’d love other ideas with what to do with odd bits of china.

We’ve already covered some bits and pieces – like mugs & cups that have lost their handles, and broken crockery in general – but what about other odd bits: cups & saucers like here, or gravy boats, milk jugs and other random tableware.

If they’re in good condition, they can of course go to charity shops or the like – the household bricabrac shelves are my favourite place for picking up beautifully ugly china – but what about stuff that chipped or cracked?

Like with last week’s baby food jars, I’ve seen old pretty cups and saucers used to make sewing kits (the cup topped with a pincushion and used for storage, the saucer used for holding pins/buttons mid-job) and old chipped shallow bowls around here are frequently used underneath plants.

Any other suggestions?

Back in October, John started collecting our used matches in a little dish and I encouraged it because it meant I wasn’t the only person in the house that collected random and strange things for some currently unimagined crafty reuse.

To be fair to John, he did have a plan at the outset – those matches, completely whole just with blackened heads, were going to become stubble on his Jack O Lantern but in the end went for a clean-shaven look and the matches keep accumulating.

They can, of course, be used as kindling for a fire but me being me, I wonder what else can be done with them.

Any crafty ideas? Or practical uses? I’ve seen people using matchsticks as tile spacers – so they could be used for that – but anything else that takes advantage of the burned bit?

(Oh, and if you’re wondering, we covered matchboxes ages ago.)

(Photo by allysonh)