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 Sally, saying:

I have several orphaned lids to storage tubs. What can do with them?

What is it with tubs and their lids? We also have a collection of now lidless tubs and tubless lids – the tubs can be put to tub-ish tasks elsewhere but the lids…

I’ve used a couple of flimsy take-away food ones as saucers under plants but have a tendency to over-water causing spillages because they’re too shallow. I’ve also used them for stray animal feeding. But we’ve still got a (in)decent collection waiting for reuses.

Suggestions then?

We’ve had an email from Emma, asking:

How can I recycle the spine from a spiral-bound notebook?

We’ve already covered plastic spines so let’s assume that Emma means the metal ones – because, well, I’ve got a couple lying around from old reporters pads after I’ve recycled the paper part.

A lot of pads are like the plastic ones – almost like teeth of metal (if that makes sense) rather than a spiral – and I suspect they’ll be harder to reuse because they can’t just be uncoiled.

So suggestions?

(Photo by mcconnell6)

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)

After writing about the ridged After Eight boxes the other day, it reminded me about something I thought of the other week.

Because John and I are utterly, utterly wild and live a hectic, glamorous lifestyle, the highlight of our Saturday a couple of weekends ago was a trip into Leeds for coffee and freshly made donuts from our two favourite street vendors. My build-up is mocking in tone but we’d seriously looked forward to it for about three days and were GUTTED to find the donut van wasn’t there. We searched all over the city centre in case it had just moved location but no. We had to make do with baklava from the Greek deli in the market instead and as yummy as it was, it wasn’t the same as donuts.

A few minutes later, when I found myself staring into the dark abyss of my coffee cup lamenting the lack of donuts, my eyes were momentarily distracted from my gloom by the cardboard sleeve around the cup. I’m always a fan of reusing cups when possible (we’ve already covered the plastic variety on the site) but not specifically thought about the ridged cardboard sleeves so common on takeout hot drinks these days.

So any suggestions?

I guess one re-use might be as packaging around flat (or cylindrical) items in the post or possibly cushioning under a heavy object (although the ridges might get squished out if the item is too heavy). Any other ideas?

(One idea of course may be to not accept them in the first place – if you drink take-out hot drinks regularly, you could make your own reusable sleeve from a scrap of fabric.)

(Oh, and just to clarify: we don’t go to Starbucks – we go to an independent place – it was just the best picture I could find to illustrate ridged sleeves.)