Nicky has emailed to ask how she can recycle:

Almost 100 kilometres of 2″ wide yellow florists ribbon. Unravelled and of varying lengths – very long to short pieces. Currently in 5 large industrial bags.

Wow, that’s a fair bit of ribbon! My first thought would be to offer it to a local scrap store – they collect unwanted materials from businesses and the like, and redistribute them to local schools, community groups and crafters for upcycling & repurposing. Many will collect suitable materials from businesses too, so it’s worth a shot.

Another option would be to offer it on Freecycle/Freegle – it’s unlikely that anyone would want all five bags but a few people might be willing to take a bag each, for their own craft/redistribution purposes.

As for actually recycling it, most florists’ ribbon is made of polypropylene (plastic number 5), which can be recycled so a plastics recycling company may be interested in it. (I don’t know how much 100km of ribbon weighs – most recycling companies like a minimum of around a tonne) I don’t have any particular recommendations for Nicky though – anyone know any plastic recycling companies around London?

Any other suggestions for ways to reuse it, recycle it or pass it on? Preferably ideas suitable for reusing/recycling 100km of the stuff rather than individual craft suggestions.

(Photo by michaelaw)

We’ve had an email from Matt asking:

I have bags of unused scraps of upholstery vinyl, I’m trying to find out if these can be recycled and if so how?

At the moment they are just being thrown away but if they can be turned into something else then that’s great!

I suspect Matt is producing these scraps on a commercial scale so needing something more than craft suggestions. However, what might be a scrap to him (because, for example, it can’t be used for an entire seat cover perhaps) might not be a scrap to another person who wants to make smaller things out of them – there are organisations like Scrap Leeds who collect reusable commercial waste and redistribute it to schools, arts projects and crafters. If possible, it might be worth sorting out sizeable scraps while going along.

As for the truly scrap pieces, if they can’t be recycled back into sheets of fabric, it might be possible to shred them for reuse as insulation or stuffing – the hard bit is finding a nearby company who does that. Any suggestions?