We’ve had an email from Michelle Grogan:

With the upcoming smoking ban in public places* almost on our doorstep, I was wondering if anyone might know anything about recycling ashtrays and if this can be done in a way to raise money for charity?

I suspect some will be yoinked by members of staff or regulars for use in their own homes but does anyone know about any recycling schemes for Michelle?

Or any fun reuses if anyone manages to snag a handful or more from their local?

(* From 1st July, smoking will be banned in all enclosed public spaces – including pubs, restaurants, private clubs and places of work – in England bringing the country in line with similar bans already in place in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.)

(Photo by levi_sz)

A few weeks ago now, we had a weekend away (to Lindisfarne – was great) and when we returned, we were greeted by a big bundle of wires in the middle of our garden path. A neighbour had found – and disassembled – a broken sunbed while we were away and the wires were leftover. He knows we like using odd things so left them out for us.

So I took them in and sorted them by colour – but don’t know what to do with them. They seem to be quite thick – but malleable – copper, coated in pretty tough plastic. They mostly range in length from around 50cm (20″) to about 1m (40″), but there are some shorter ones at about 20cm (8″) too.

The wires look pretty flexible and strong but I don’t know if they’re bendy enough to use for something like macrame – at least fine knotting – but I like the idea of using them from something crafty. So any suggestions?

Or any more practical ideas?

We’ve had an email from Timothy asking “how can i reuse or recycle old snowboard bindings?“.

As my knowledge of snowboarding on extends as far as playing ‘SSX’ on the XBox, my first question was “what are snowboard bindings?”. Wikipedia informs me they are the bits that hold the snowboarder’s feet to the board and can either be as simple as straps or complex moulded hard plastic things. (Someone please correct me if I’ve read/written that wrong.)

So any suggestions?

(Photo by aculine)

We’ve had an email from Andrew Whittington:

These are the industrial carrying bags, usually made from a plastic woven material with four strong carrying handles for a crane or fork lift truck to move large quantities of building materials such as sand and stone. These are being seen more and more delivered to domestic homes, and are seen as a disposable item and the companies are not interested in having them back.

At the moment I have one in the garden and i’m using it as a tempory compost bin until I can make my own, however the plastic is starting to rot into tiny pieces, any other ideas what I can do with it?

I’ve been seeing these about more and more too and would probably go for the compost thing or using the material for hanging basket (etc) lining – but I’m sure the latter doesn’t make best use of the bags and would probably have the same rotting problem. So any ideas?

Back in the day, before I realised what an ecological nightmare they were, I used to yoink the mini shampoo bottles, soaps and leftover shower caps from hotel bathrooms, particularly when we stayed in fancy hotels and they came in interesting bottles and smelled of great things. I built up quite a collection and I know I’m not alone in doing so (hi mum!).

These days we take our own (full size or thereabouts) supplies with us when we go away but I’m also still working through the stack of these little bottles in the back of the bathroom cupboard.

Aside from refilling the empties for gym/spa/pool sessions when you don’t want to lug a full bottle of shampoo or shower gel, does anyone have any other suggestions for reusing these little single-use-size critters?