We’ve had an email from Sara R, asking:

What can I do with plastic forks? I always used to carry a proper one in my bag so I didn’t have to pick one up when I got a pasta pot for lunch but now the forks are inside the pot so I can’t refuse them. I’ve now got a stack of little forks that I don’t know what to do with. I reuse or recycle the pot itself but I don’t know about the forks.

Wikipedia informs me that plastic cutlery is usually Polystyrene – type 6 plastic – and that can’t usually be recycled easily so I guess we’re looking at reuses.

I guess they could be melted/moulded into jewellery or some of the other suggestions we had for metal cutlery but any plastic specific ideas?

(Photo by asolario)

We got into our biennial toasted-cheese-sandwich obsession last weekend and while we were on top of a kitchen cabinet hunting down the toastie maker last weekend, we found a tub full of old random cheap cutlery.

We’ve acquired these random odds and sods over the years but they were superseded a couple of years ago by cutlery that

1. hangs from a little hook thing because we don’t have any drawers in the kitchen, and
2. doesn’t bend when eat something as solid as, oh, soup.

They’ve mostly got plastic handles but of all different colours and styles from different sets. I suspect the best thing I can do with them, even in their wonky bent state, would be to give them to a charity shop or Freecycle them but thought I’d see if anyone has any cool ideas for other reuses for them first. So suggestions?

(Photo by Gastonmag)