We’ve had an email from Joanna, asking:

My (soft) X-box dance mat is slightly broken – I think the connection from one of the pads is busted. Any ideas how I can reuse or recycle it?

I’ve only ever seen the solid ones so I don’t know how thick/malleable the soft ones are but if it’s reasonably thin and not as wrinkled like the one in the picture, it might make a cool “rug” for a dance fan’s bedroom or could be used as a fun surface protector on a desk. Anyone with more knowledge of them got any better ideas?

I’d also be interested in hearing if anyone has any suggestions for the solid ones too – I suspect that there will be a lot dumped on the scrap heap (literally) when either the dancer goes off the game or when the console is upgraded and the new pad doesn’t work with the old machine (like happens with joysticks and game pads). Any suggestions?

(Photo by PiaCarrot)

We’ve had another email from our good suggesting friend, [Am]/Delusion:

Me again, I have just managed to find a company that will recycle floppy discs (as well as shred the confidential information) however now that the mass of floppies have gone I am left with several different shaped floppy disk boxes.

Any suggestions on what I could do with them?

I’ve attached a photo of three different styles of boxes i have!

We’ve got a couple of these lying around too and I’ve got one of those divider ones earmarked for that long, long, long awaited day that I get organised – I thought I could use it for recipe cards.

Any other suggestions?

We’ve had an email from Renee, who left just about a billion re-use suggestions around the site a couple of weeks ago (thanks Renee!):

How can I reuse Styrofoam cuts/containers and things? I don’t buy anything that comes with this junk but find it by the road and on the beach all of the time. I’d like to re-use it in some useful way.

I’m presuming that Renee means the stuff like type of “clam-shell” styrofoam containers that most major chain fast-food restaurants stopped using a few years ago (…I think – correct me if I’m wrong) but which are still used by a lot of independent take-out food places.

While researching this post, I found there is a lot of more eco-friendly starch/sugar-based clam-shell packaging around these days – but based on my experiences with take-out places around here at least, the nasty plastic stuff is still pretty common. So any re-use ideas?

(On a related subject, we’ve already covered flat-ish meat/veg trays & shaped fruit ones that are usually made of styrofoam or something similar, and other foam-like packing materials.)

(Photo by, coincidentally, another Renee, Renee Comet)

We’ve had an email from Jane, asking:

I just wondered if you are aware of how to recycle Tyvek overalls?

My first question when I received this was “what are Tyvek overalls?” and Wikipedia informs me that Tyvek is the brand name for those “disposable” overalls that look like they’re made out of tough paper but are in fact made out of high-density polyethylene fibres (apparently).

Wikipedia also informs me that DuPont, who makes Tyvek, there is a programme in place for reusing them in the US (according to the Tyvek FAQ, “non-contaminated garments used in cleanroom operations can be recycled for non-hazardous applications. Contact DuPont Protective Apparel Customer Service for additional information”) and I have emailed to see what they offer and where they offer it. (I’ll update when I get a response.)

I also asked them about other green disposal suggestions – their FAQ says the preferred method of disposal is landfill (!) but they can be incinerated (!!) – so we’ll see if anything comes of that. But in the meantime/in addition, does anyone else have any other ideas?

(Photo by Jsjacob)

We’ve already covered a multitude of Valentine’s Day-themed items but Tamara came up with a new one for us:

I’d like to know if anyone has a suggestion for how to re-use Valentine’s candy hearts? The chalky kind with writing on them, I mean. They passed them around at work yesterday. I only like the orange ones, and so I’ve been left with a card-deck sized box of other colors. I thought they might look cute as pins, but i think they’d melt if I tried to shellac them. So what to do?

From their pages on Wikipedia, the UK Love Hearts and the US Sweethearts sweets look a bit different but since Tamara (who I’m presuming is based in the US from her use of the spelling “colors” ;) ) refers to them as being “chalky”, I guess the texture and ingredients are pretty similar.

So any suggestions? I like the cute jewellery/badges idea but agree that it might be problematic – any ideas on how to get around that?

(Photo by kymmie_xox)