We’ve had an email from Andy:

I work for an Events company based in Newmarket, Suffolk, and I have got over 1000 mugs, which as come back from an event and we need to recycle.

Do you know where I can do this?

We’ve got plenty of home & garden reuses for old/broken crockery but I suspect most people would find it hard to reuse over 1000 mugs as plant pots or for kids painting sessions – so we’re looking for mass reuse, redistribution or recycling into something more useful than landfill.

As with the other recent substantial amount of new stuff query, it might be worth contacting a local homeless shelter or soup kitchen, or another similar charity that could use them en masse.

As an absolute last resort instead of landfill, they could probably be crushed down for rubble/hardcore – but it would obviously be better to reuse them before that.

Any other suggestions?

(Oh and event organisers, check out our “how can I reduce the waste I receive at conferences etc?” post – reduce in the first place so you’re not stuck looking for reuse and recycling ideas afterwards!)

We’ve had an email from Hester, asking:

what can I do with a teapot with a broken spout?

You could give gluing it back together a go — it’s not quite as much of a safety worry as say, gluing a broken handle back onto a cup/mug but there is still the risk of scalding if it comes off again at an inopportune moment.

So other less hazardous suggestions? Almost needless to say, teapots make very fun plant pots or utensil/pen pots. Depending how much of the spout remains, you could use it as an indoor watercan too.

The china/pottery from completely broken teapots can be used for drainage at the bottom of plantpots – although if the lid is intact and you’re buying another similar size teapot to replace it, keep the lid as a mix-match spare.

Any other suggestions?