One of the ways we ask for suggestions of items to feature here is for people to send in clever things they’ve done. Wendy Brodie did just that and sent in some great ideas:

I have 2 long haired dogs and the hair when they moult is quite substantial. I used to do some spinning and weaving and it could be used for this.

It is lovely watching the small birds coming for bits of fur to line their nests.

We do the bird nest thing too – using the ivy up the front of our house to hold the wares instead of chicken wire – and if you want to go the other way, there are a couple of companies about the web which will spin the fluff for you (this one gives instructions but has stopped taking in work at the moment).

Animal fluff (like human hair) can also be composted or used around plants to keep slimy things at bay (slugs and snails don’t like the rough texture so are less likely to climb over it to get to your seedlings).

Any other suggestions for ways it can be reused?

(Photos of the lovely Kookie and Rosie, and the chicken wire fluff holder, by Wendy)

Wearing our Compost This hat, we had an email from Beth Schreiber asking whether tumble dryer sheets can be composted.

I might be wrong but I believe the sheets are usually synthetic – but whether they are or not, I’d still be dubious about composting them because of the various chemicals they contain to do all the softening and scenting stuff.

But if composting is out, what else can be done with them?

I realise that tumble drying has its own implications for the environment but assuming it’s the only option, there is no point the sheets going to waste too. Beth’s interested in hearing alternatives to sheets too if anyone knows of any.

(For those that don’t know, the sheets are usually made of a thin material, about 20cm (8″) square and coated in chemicals to reduce static cling in the tumble dryer and to “freshen” the clothes.)

(Photo by solobirch)

We’ve had an email from Sally Harrop, asking for ideas for recycling or reusing “normal” telephones:

By which I mean land line telephones. I have an ordinary handset and an old battery driven cordless phone (which must have dodgy innards) neither of which work now.

We are inundated by requests for old mobiles, usually because someone is making a buck somewhere, but I can’t find anything about recycling/safe disposal of not-mobile phones (except for large quantities – tonnes – from offices). Any ideas?

(Photo by Jay_kumar)

We’ve had an email from Nichola:

My husband works in a cinema and has brought home a heap of old movie posters for me to recycle into something else. But what? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Given Nichola had a link to the wonderful Etsy in her email signature, the first ideas I had were crafty – borrowing Ecoist‘s idea of making them into handbags or wallets or making some fun art by weaving strips of different posters together. Any more crafty ideas?

Or what about more practical ones?

(Photo by AliciaYeah)

After the disposable razor post the other week, I decided to make a concerted effort to avoid using them in the future and stick to using my rechargeable electric razor instead – and then, of course, said electric razor died.

I don’t know if the battery just stopped holding charge or if something mechanical went wrong with it suddenly but either way, it’s now an ex-razor.

Any suggestions for ways I can recycle or reuse the razor itself – presumably a battery as well as the actual shaving bit – or the related charger? With the growing popularity of rechargeable batteries in electronic devices, I suspect there is a growing mountain of electrical adaptors with proprietary connectors that are no longer needed once the device has died or is replaced because it’s the wrong shade of chrome for this week’s fashion. So any ideas what to do with them?