We’ve had an email from Ann:

Hello – we regularly receive medications shipped to us in a foam cooler, packed in plastic-wrapped foam cold packs (with some sort of liquid embedded). It’s easy to recycle the little cooler at the recycling center, but I wonder about the cold packs, since they contain the liquid. I hate to send them to the landfill. Any suggestions? Thanks.

I can’t find any pictures illustrating what Ann means but she assures me they’re “they’re liquid filled packs with a spongey, foam material inside too”.

If they’re suitable, I’d be tempted to keep one or two coolers and cold packs for using on picnics or the like – but that’s only one or two and by the sounds of it, Ann needs a more long-term solution.

So any ideas?

UPDATE: Ann’s sent me a link to the packs on the manufacturer’s website and said she’s going to contact them to see what they suggest – and hopefully she’ll feedback to us if she hears anything :)

When we get together with our friends, we’re just about the wildest, craziest group of trendy 20-somethings you’re ever likely to meet.

We’re so wild in fact that the other night some of us had MORE THAN ONE LOLLIPOP while we were sat around chatting. (I stuck to one because I don’t want to develop an addiction – it was very nice and orangey though).

By the end of the night, there was a small pile of plastic lolly sticks on the table and I wondered “how can I reuse or recycle them?”

So how can I reuse or recycle them? For those that aren’t as wild as us lollipop-heads, they’re a thin, cylindrical tube of plastic about 6cm (3inches) long and just a couple of millimetres in diameter. I guess they’re similar to plastic Q-tip/cotton bud sticks.

(Photo by Bubbels)

Ok, since you guys were so great coming up with ideas for lettuce last month, here’s a related one: cucumber.

Like with the lettuce, we don’t eat enough salad to get through a whole cucumber before it goes mushy and horrible – we find it pretty hard to even get through a half-cucumber unless we’re on an utter salad binge.

So once we’ve eaten our fill of it, what else can we do with it? There is the cliche cucumber-on-eye thing I guess and I have a suspicion you can use them in face masks – but any more concrete ideas?

(Photo by woodsy)

They probably still look nice and festive today but in a couple of days, they’ll be starting to look a bit past it – so what are the options?

Most local council tips provide Christmas tree recycling these days – take your tree along to your local household waste collection site and they’ll shred it for use as ground cover or the like.

But what if you can’t get it to a tip? Some councils pick them up from your home if you ask for collection but how can they be otherwise used around the home and garden?

We’ve covered tree branches in general in the past but are there any pine tree specific things?

(Beautiful photo by soultga)

Hark the herald angels sing;

“it’s easy with the Recycle This guide!”

(Photo by LuisFico of a very cool tree made from light)