I’ll let you guess what we had for dinner last night ;)

We were packing away the papers afterwards and John commented on how much paper was going to waste – it was quite a lot, with spots of grease soaked through to the out-most layer.

Our friend George thinks it’s wonderful for lighting fires/stoves but given it’s almost midsummer, it’s not exactly stove lighting weather.

It would compost – I’m always wary about adding anything fishy/meaty to our compost bin though in case it attracts vermin. (The oil used at our local fish’n’chip place is vegetable oil but it must smell of a bit of fish because the cats love the papers, even when the food has gone.)

Any other reuses?

From a reduce point of view, I could take along a reusable container and ask them to use that instead – the people at our local place are great, so I’m sure they would do it. Any advice on what type of container to use? A completely sealed one might make everything a bit sweaty on the way home. A reusable box with a towel/cloth on top?

(In case this is very much a UK-centric question, I’ll explain a bit: when we get our stereotypical fish ‘n’ chips, they usually come wrapped in paper. It’s typically a “greaseproof” sheet or pocket underneath the food, then all wrapped in a few big sheets of cheap paper. This used to be newspaper but now it tends to be purpose-bought white paper (often blank newsprint). Some places use expanded foam clam shells or waxed cardboard boxes but the majority of dedicated fish’n’chip places, in the north at least, still use paper.)

(CCA photo by jem)

Our good friend Tim posted this question on Twitter yesterday:

Anyone have good craft ideas for a synthetic England Flag? There may be lots of them on the streets or landfills soon

There certainly will be! A4-ish size car ones, towel sized ones, super-sized ones… a whole lot of squeaky synthetic white fabric with a red cross on it — all of which will be instantly discarded as soon as the team are knocked out. (I’m speaking from experience about the disappearing – the photo was taken on our old estate by John during the last World Cup and they all disappeared the day after the losing match.)

Of course it would be great if everyone reduced – didn’t buy as many (if any) or kept them to reuse for future events rather than buying new each time but that doesn’t seem to happen.

So any reusing, upcycling and recycling suggestions?

• We get a lot of tutorials on making random old textiles into bags or aprons – but this is the other way around: use a cute old apron as an instant cafe-style kitchen curtain. I also love Ki’s use of an old paint roller as a kitchen roll holder.
• Courtney of the Greenists linked to this TED Talk by Treehugger’s Graham Hill about becoming a weekday vegetarian.
• Crafting a Green World on how to upcycle plain tiles into pretty coasters.
• I’m a sucker for not throwing away those last couple of yards of yarn at the end of a ball/project – and here is a very mini project to use them up.
• Speaking of using up scraps, Sandra of sawdustandpaperscraps make a very nice pinstripe picture frame using scraps of wood.
• And finally use an old hardback book and a dull pad of paper to make a more hardwearing and fun notepad.

This is usually the other way around – we usually suggest things that can be used to insulate water pipes – but I saw some foam water pipe lagging on the road today while walking the dog. I imagine it had blown off a nearby skip or been taken off by kids (because reuse #1: they’re great for sword fights) but either way: yoink!

Given the rain of the last 24 hrs, they’re a bit wet but since they’re plasticky foam, I imagine they’ll dry fine. We’ll probably use them for actual pipe lagging as we’ve just had some new pipe work put in – but if we were already insulated, what else could we use them for?

Walking down the road the other day – on the way to lunch, I spotted the wheels of a pushchair sticking out of a skip. The next time I walked past, the skip had gone so I couldn’t grab it – but it got me thinking all the same.

I’d like to think that if it was still in a usable condition for a child, they’d have passed it onto someone else – there is an NCT nearly new sale nearby this weekend and it’s been heavily advertised around here for weeks – so I presume it’s damaged in some way.

But just because it’s unsafe for a child doesn’t mean it has no other uses. Our neighbour at the last house would have, as a minimum, reused the wheels for a go-kart or similar. I wonder what other bits could be used for…?

And if it, say, was broken — tears in the supporting fabric or wheel damage — does anyone know if there are any organisations which repair this type of thing for donation to those in need?

(CCA Photo by Chris Denbow. I was tempted to use this photo instead – such a handsome chap!)