We’ve had an email from Amanda:

All 3 of my children are involved in paper routes here in Canada & as such we are left with 50+ plastic strappings twice a week. Our town says they are not recyclable & have to add to my already restricted garbage output. Whilst we are pushing the paper company to change the way they deliver & bundle the papers, we need to find ways to keep these strappings from the landfills.

I’ve never been enough of a morning person to have a paper route and I initially thought Amanda meant cable-tie-esque bindings but Google suggests they’re more like the straps I’ve seen around flat-pack furniture or the like – quite tough strips that are impossible to tear by hand but are reasonably flexible lengthwise. It is quite possibly polypropylene but I wouldn’t swear to that (just putting two and two together after reading a number of websites).

I’ve got a bit of a thing for weaving stuff like that so would be tempted to make them into a bag or something – but anyone else got any other suggestions?

We’ve had an email from Chloe:

Legos seem as though they should have infinite uses after they have done their toy duty, and I would love to hear some. I mostly have the chunky toddler type.

I know they could be donated, but a nifty second life for them around the house would be even better. Also, I wonder if they are recyclable? Any thoughts?

I love Lego-as-jewellery – but think that’ll only work with the smaller, regular sort (unless you want a MASSIVE pair of dangling earrings…) – and I think Lego artwork looks really cool on walls – but again, probably only the smaller bricks unless you want a huge (and deep) picture.

So any suggestions for the big Duplo bricks?

(Photo by Sphire)

We’ve had an email from Ashley Sue, asking:

What is a good sustainable use of 40 lb plastic empty kitty litter containers? I’ve got a bunch of them. not recyclable in our area :(

We get our cat litter in paper sacks so I’m not quite sure whether Ashley Sue means bucket-like tubs like this one or jug-style containers like these. The link on the former already give one potential re-use — for growing veg — and we’ve got a few of the latter type that originally held dry cat food which we use for other cat-related purposes – either mixing up two flavours of dry cat food to dilute one they don’t particularly like, for holding litter when the paper bag splits or if a bulk-bought sack of food/litter needs decanting so the smaller member of our household (ie me) can lift it. I’m sure a well-washed out litter jug could be used for all these things too.

Any other (cat or non-cat) suggestions though?

(Oh, and if you’re interested, we’ve already covered recycling/composting the litter itself. Also, can I just say how delighted I am that it’s spring and the cats are leaving the house for the first time in months – it’s been a long, long poopy winter.)

We’ve had an email from Lesley, asking:

Has anyone got any suggestions for re-using the “bladders” from the inside of wine boxes? Being both airtight and water-tight, there must be an alternative use for them.

Given the springing of spring this weekend and the fact it’ll probably be hard enough to get it clean (ie, un-wine sceneted) enough to re-use as a drinking liquid container, I’m tempted to come up with garden suggestions.

My first thought was for brewing a liquid fertiliser using nettles but then I realised, duh, you can’t really get nettles in that little neck hole so that wasn’t a particularly useful thought. Thanks there brain.

So any actually feasible suggestions for Lesley instead?

We’ve had another meta suggestion – this time from Kate:

How can I recycle a black plastic dustbin?

It’s true you shouldn’t bin a bin!

It is true! We’ve actually got two old bins in our garden – one pre-dating my move here that’s filled with soil and has herbs and ivy growing out of it (the latter pretty much hides the fact it’s a bin) while the other one (our pre-wheelie bin bin) is used for compost. It’s not as good as our proper compost bin – because there is no easy way to get the soil out again – but I consider it a long term overflow thing, to stop the other compost bin being filled up with things that take ages to rot. Before that, when we actually did DIY stuff on the house, it was used to hold bags of sand and cement because it was reasonably water tight.

Any more suggestions?

(Photo by dean)