We’ve had an email from Angela, asking:

I currently work for a company of a little over 200 individuals. I have recently noticed how much money we spend and general waste we generate from our desk supplies alone. Unfortunately we don’t have a lot of room to store items such as metal and plastic desk top sorters, wall files, book ends, and monitor boosters.

How can we recycle these items? I have looked up local recycling facilities but haven’t found anything that seems to match our need.

If they’re still in good condition, I think the focus should really be on reuse rather than recycle.

I suspect small local charities would be able to use them – but that might be too piecemeal to make it practical. It would be worth offering them on your local Freecycle group though, just in case.

Any other suggestions?

(Photo by dekok)

We’ve had an email from Gillian, asking:

how can i recycle my children’s old teddy bears? i don’t have the heart to chuck them in the land fill. any suggestions?

As a previous owner of a large collection of stuffed toy cats, dogs, bunnies and seals, I can understand the reluctance to throw them away.

If they’re in good condition, I’d be tempted to bung them through the wash then give them away to a charity shop or a refuge for another child to enjoy – but they might not be accepted for re-sale/re-distribution if they’ve been loved a little too much in the past.

How about stripping them down for parts instead? Eyes, stuffing and bits of interesting fabric/fur are always welcome additions to a craft collection – but it might feel a little bit like an autopsy ;)

Any other suggestions?

(Photo by lusi)

We’ve had an email from Megan McDermott, saying:

I just put my Christmas tree up this week and was disappointed to find that three strands of lights aren’t working. I hate to throw them in out, but what can I do with them?

It’s early in the festive season but I suspect a number of people will be hitting the same snag around about now. I’ve seen Christmas tree lights used in all sorts of non-festive places – but they’ve all been working.

Given the amount of little bulbs and wire involved, it’s probably one of those things that is, unfortunately, cheaper to replace than to fix these days – but has anyone got any trouble-shooting tips to get them working again?

But if that doesn’t fix the problem, what other options are there to reuse them either in all or in parts?

(Photo by singhajay)

We’ve had another email from our most prolific suggester of things [Am] (aka Delusion):

Me again! While at my parents I caught my mother about to throw out some very old curlers. I managed to snag them before they reached the rubbish bin and thought they would be a good suggestion idea.

There are two kinds, one are cylinders with elastic looped at the bottom that attaches to the ‘stopper’ part and the other kind are spongy, bendy ones. Any ideas for usage to stop them being dumped in a landfill?

If they’re bendy enough, I imagine the bendy ones would be a great addition to a tool box – you could use them for, say, holding pipes together or tying a garden plant to a support (the foam would stop the wire digging into the stem).

And for the cylinder ones, mini-bird feeders? Or if you could block each end, fill with lavender (or the like) to use as an air-freshner or in a drawer/wardrobe?

Any other ideas?

(Photo by [Am] – thanks :) )

We’ve had an email from Penny:

I have some relatively new – but damaged – strips of vinyl flooring. Can they be recycled and if so how/where?

Penny doesn’t say how big the strips are or whether they’re completely damaged or just in part – if only bits of the strips are damaged, the good bits could be used to cover a desk/work bench to make it easier to wipe clean.

They could also be used in the garden – on top of a compost heap perhaps or if you’ve got an open-bottomed compost bin like ours, underneath it in case you want to move it in the future (we have a piece of wood under ours at the moment but I suspect the flexibility of vinyl flooring would make it easier to drag if needed).

Any other ideas? Anyone know about whether it can actually be recycled?

(I added “lino” (as in Linoleum) to the subject since I suspect a lot of re-uses would apply to either.)

(Photo by Maffu)