We’ve had an email from Brett, saying:

Hi, I saw your lip balm story last week and it reminded me about something. We go through loads of Pritt Stick at work. What can we do with those empty tubes?

I’ve contacted the company that makes Pritt Stick about the recycling side of things but until they get back to me, does anyone have any reusing ideas?

Office or school related ideas would be best as I suspect that’s where they’re used in the largest quantities but any ideas would be welcome. :)

(Photo by gradient)

(By the way, would it make me sound like a wannabe glue sniffer if I mention how much I’m now craving a smell of UHU magic glue sticks after seeing pictures of them in my picture search? ;)

We’ve had an email from Sara:

I am in charge of stationery orders at work, and I have recently been asked to order “rubber thimbles” because we have worn them out. So I looked at all these little rubber thimbles, and thought, do these all have to go to waste? Other than being jaunty little hats for stuffed toys around the office, what else can I do with these things?

Everyone has agreed before I order new ones we have to think of something to do with the current ones!

Hehe, I like the jaunty hat idea – I also love that your colleagues have agreed to holding off on reordering new things until the old ones have been dealt with.

Rubber can be recycled but I don’t know if m/any recycling companies would be interested in such small items. Anyone know?

And any other suggestions?

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)