Andy (previously of the cat litter and bulk building material bag questions) has sent us a clever idea regarding those popular after dinner mints:

Here’s a suggestion form another Greeny site I visit. After Eight sleeves and the box they comes with, now used as a filing box for seeds.

Great idea – the little, slightly-waxed sleeves are perfect envelopes if you have small quantities of seeds – it’s just shame they’re black so not easy to write on to label up which seeds are where (then again, I’ve got a silver pen for writing on black paper knocking around somewhere so that would work).

I imagine the little ridges in the box could also be useful for holding slide collections – if people still have slides in this age of digital cameras and Powerpoint.

Any other suggestions though?

(For those not familiar with the choc’n’mint treat, they’re flat, thin chocolates with a mint creme filling. They come in boxes of about 25-30 and each chocolate is individually wrapped in a gusset of black waxy paper, about 4cm (2inches) square with an open top. The cardboard box is rectangular with (removable) ridged padding inside and the chocolate stand upright in the box, held in place by the ridges.)

We’ve had a bit of an unusual suggestion from Estelle:

I once had these models made of my feet. They used them to generate orthotics for my flat feet. Now I have these cumbersome, heavy plaster-of-paris models sitting around at home… What can one do with them?

I don’t know how heavy they are but maybe paint them for funky bookends or doorstops?

Any other suggestions?

We’ve had an email from Victoria, saying:

My grandfather has moved out of the house and left a very large collection of used razor blades. For what reason he never seemed to throw them out and just let them pile up in a bathroom cabinet. Can this item be recycled?

I’m presuming Victoria means safety razor type blades – not fully disposable razors or straight blades.

If they’re just metal (without plastic casing) then I suspect they can be recycled in the same way as other steel (most household waste sites have special containers for scrap metal) but what about reuses?

(Photo by iannai)

Deodorant bottles were one of the first things we featured on the site but Julie has a bit of a spin on that suggestions:

Could you help me with what I could possibly do with toiletries such as deodorant, body lotion that have either not been used or of they have only once. These have either irritated the skin or just don’t like them now.

It seems such a waste to throw them away, so I would welcome any ideas of organisations that might benefit from them.

I’ve had the irritating the skin problem with some deodorants too and now they’re sitting in the bathroom cupboard until the day I, I don’t know, develop leather-like lizard skin that can’t be irritated by anything in a roll-top bottle.

I suspect like with old cosmetics and unused but not required sanitary towels/tampons one answer might be a local women’s or homeless shelter – but any other suggestions?

I think I remember something about some body lotions being used as a moisturiser/softener on old leather but have no idea where I picked that up – anyone know either way?

We’ve had an email from Ashley Sue, asking:

What is a good sustainable use of 40 lb plastic empty kitty litter containers? I’ve got a bunch of them. not recyclable in our area :(

We get our cat litter in paper sacks so I’m not quite sure whether Ashley Sue means bucket-like tubs like this one or jug-style containers like these. The link on the former already give one potential re-use — for growing veg — and we’ve got a few of the latter type that originally held dry cat food which we use for other cat-related purposes – either mixing up two flavours of dry cat food to dilute one they don’t particularly like, for holding litter when the paper bag splits or if a bulk-bought sack of food/litter needs decanting so the smaller member of our household (ie me) can lift it. I’m sure a well-washed out litter jug could be used for all these things too.

Any other (cat or non-cat) suggestions though?

(Oh, and if you’re interested, we’ve already covered recycling/composting the litter itself. Also, can I just say how delighted I am that it’s spring and the cats are leaving the house for the first time in months – it’s been a long, long poopy winter.)