We’ve had an email from Maggie:

I’ve seen all your suggestions for reusing clothes but I’ve got an old coat that’s vinyl not cloth. What can be done with that? It’s got a tear right down the arm so can’t go to the charity shop.

If the tear isn’t in a very obviously place (perhaps on the underside or bodyside of the arm), it might be worth trying to repair it. I’ve not tried it but I wonder if, working with it inside out, whether a bicycle wheel puncture repair kit might work. Anyone tried anything like that?

Aside from that, it is certainly worth salvaging the material for use around the home or in craft projects. Obviously it depends on how it is constructed but I’d have thought the back panel would give you a nice flat piece of vinyl, and the sleeves opened out would be pretty good too. Take advantage of the fact it is waterproof and use it to make table protectors, swimming/gym bags, shelf liners – or if you’re very handy with a sewing machine, there will probably even be enough fabric to make a smaller version of the same sort of coat for a child.

Any other suggestions?

We’ve had an email from Di:

Several brands of tea I buy come in little waxy paper packets with a foil lining. Do you know if this can go straight into the recycling bin?

I think it’ll be a no regarding the recycling bin. Mixed materials – such as paper & plastic, plastic & metal, and paper & foil – tend to be a bit of a nightmare when it comes to recycling — and waxed paper can also be problematic to recycle as well (apparently it can be recycled alongside tetrapak but not regular paper).

It might be worth contacting the manufacturers to see if they have any suggestions or have any method of recycling their offcuts – if they do, they might be able to take back packaging and recycle it at the same time.

Any suggestions for reuses?

We’ve had a message on the Suggestions page from Jing:

Help! I have a beanbag which has flattened over the years and so I want to know a) what recycled stuff to refill fill it with and b) what to do with the useless little squished styrofoam bits.

Craft suggestions, if there are any, might be helpful for other people but please can I have suggestions that don’t mean I have to handle the styrofoam; I have a deep and ridiculous fear of the stuff and can’t bear touching it, looking at it, or the squeaky noise it makes when handled. Odd, I know, but as fears go it’s pretty harmless.

Yes, the feel and sound of the styrofoam balls is pretty ick-worthy – but those little foam things are surely useful for something…

In the (admittedly not many) flattened beanbags I’ve seen, the flattening tends to be one of two problems: either the bag has lost some filler or, particularly in the case of more structured footstool-esque beanbags, the fabric has lost its tautness and gone floppy. It doesn’t tend to be the filler that’s the problem – because the balls are so springy and tiny. Adding some more filler or reducing the size of the beanbag would solve the first problem, but the latter would need a new cover – essentially making a new beanbag for the old filler.

As for other uses, I’ve used beanbag filler for juggling balls but the styrofoam stuff doesn’t really have the right weight to it to be used on its own in there. It would be ok in (well sealed) soft toys though.

Some people use it in potting soil to aerate it – instead of perlite – but there are pollution/chemical leakage issues with that so I wouldn’t recommend it.

Any other suggestions? Any suggestions on recycled things that could be used in the place of more shop-bought filler?

We’ve had an email from Alison:

I have loads of the washing liquid balls that come with washing liquid such as Persil. It seems a shame to throw them away if I could use them for something useful.

Like with measuring spoons in baby formula and allen keys at Ikea, it’s annoying when manufacturers include stuff by default with every purchase even though, presumably, most of their customers will already have a spoon, key or liquid ball from their last pack. There are products out there that don’t include such waste – EthicalConsumer has a list of the greenest laundry products, taking into account packaging, alongside animal testing and chemical make-up of the product itself.

But what about the balls Alison already has at home?

The washing stuff we use doesn’t come with balls but I’ve got a few very old ones in my laundry cupboard for measuring out the different powders and potions, and transporting them over to the washing machine (I’d probably use way too much if I tipped it directly into the drawer). They’d also be useful as scoops/measures for other cleaning products.

Away from housework, the balls with the flat bottoms could be used as paint caddies during kids’ (or grown-ups’) art sessions or turned into mini-sewing kits/pin cushions: fit it with a cute, cushioned lid for the pin cushion, and pins & other supplies could be kept inside.

Any other suggestions?

We’ve had another email from Lesley:

When I replace worn out hot water bottles, before throwing them out, I always remove and save the stoppers as spares. (I don’t know why really – it’s just something my mother always used to do!). Now I’ve discovered that some of the stoppers are no good as bottles now have wider tops requiring wider stoppers. Has anyone got any ideas for using the old ones?

They look like one of those things that, one day, will be the answer to one’s DIY prayers – something I’d run about holding aloft and ever grateful for the day I thought to put the orphaned stopper in our random stuff drawer. I don’t know what need it would be filling (stoppering up a water butt’s tap or a narrow necked container?) but wow, it would fit it perfectly.

Any suggestions for what they could be used for?