We’ve had an email from Chelsea, who has very nicely been pimping this site to her family:

I told my mom about this site and she asked if there was anything about coffee cans. She saves all the ones she has, and just uses them for storing nails and such. Any better ideas?

In the UK, most coffee tends to come in either jars or bags but we’ve got some old Illy cans knocking around from before John discovered our fab local coffee supplier, the Just Coffee People (if you’re in Leeds, you should really try it – coffee fans tell me it’s great from there and we also heart the tea – and if you read the about page you’ll see it’s a great Social Firm too. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes..). The Illy cans either came with a screw top lid or a rubber cap, depending on the size of the can, so have way more reuses than a standard more-difficult-to-reseal food can.

Like Chelsea’s mum, we use them for nails etc in the cellar, storing other teas & coffees in the kitchen, a pen pot in the office upstairs and I’ve got two in front of me in the living room right now working as money boxes for our spare change. I’ve also used the screw on lids as saucers under plant pots – they’re silver and quite deep so look fun.

Any other suggestions?

We’ve had an email from Rob Williams:

I collected silver foil/aluminium foil for a lady at work and she gave it to a charity. She has now retired and I still have a growing pile of foil. Does anyone know of a charity that wants this? I’m told it is a ‘valuable’ commodity.

Our doorstep recycling includes aluminium foil so it can easily be recycled – but as Rob asks, does anyone know of any charities that collect it?

And since we’re all about reusing, while we’re on the topic – any re-use suggestions?

(Related items: we’ve already covered foil pet food trays and foil chocolate/sweet/biscuit wrappers.)

(Photo by nlHarri)

Had an email from a fellow cat fan Jo White:

Our two cats are developing increasingly sophisticated appetites….they still have canned food but do occasionally like to have the food that comes in small foil trays. I’m loathe to throw them out and I don’t have a garden so re-using them for plant seedlings isn’t a solution unfortunately. Can they be recycled anywhere in the UK?

If they’re just foil, I think they can be recycled along with aluminium foil – is that right? if not, can they be recycled any other way?

And what about reuses? Any non-gardeny suggestions for Jo?

(Photo by Jo)

Aside from glass bottles then newspapers, one of the first things to hit my recycling radar was learning to tell the difference between steel and aluminium cans for recycling purposes. I think there was a Blue Peter Christmas appeal to collect aluminium cans or something, so for a good few months I watched with glee as magnets slid off the side of cans. In the name of children’s television related charity, I perfected the art of crushing cans or at least getting them wedged onto my shoes so I could pretend I was a tap dancer. Ah, happy recycling days…

Reusing them though, that’s a bit more tricky. I wonder if recycling of them is so commonplace that people don’t think to reuse them – or if they’re only recycled because there aren’t many reuses for them… Any suggestions?
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