John used to play drums back in the day and has just started to pick it up again so has been cleaning/refurbishing some of his old kit.

He used to specialise in hitting them awfully hard with sticks so the “skins” are a bit knackered – especially since he uses brushes on them now, therefore needs them coated so they sound right … or something (my musical skills begin and end with the swanee/slide whistle).

Anyway, we’ve now got a couple of old drumheads lying around the house now – they’re not torn, just not worn out. For those as musically challenged as me, they’re, well, like floppy-ish frisbees: round and flat (funnily enough), with the edges curved around about 1.5cm (3/4 inch). The skin is thin plastic and, as I said floppy.

Presumably with all the musicians out there, there are thousands of these things discarded every week – so any suggestions what people can do with them? And what about if the skin is torn – any suggestions then?

(Photo by Vierdrie)

I’ve been thinking about Scott’s really big piece of slate from Monday and it reminded me that I often see old slate roof tiles in skips around our estate as houses are renovated and new roofs added.

We have a slate surround and hearth for our fireplace so slate goes well in our living room but we already have some slate coasters and to be honest, we don’t use them much.

Any suggestions how else we can use the skip-dived slate tiles around the living room or elsewhere?

The tiles are flat, and usually about 30cm by 20cm and between 5mm-1cm thick (1’x9″x um, a quarter of an inch or something).

(Photo by Flo_Evans)

Had an email from Scott Tillman:

I hate throwing away old furniture, but sometimes there’s nothing left to do but mulch that old wood and move on. That’s fine except now I have the slate top to an old pool table (so its about 4’x8’x1″) and I’m trying to figure out what I can do with it.

I’m a handy-man, so no idea is too crazy. I have thought about building a new base for the pool table, but I don’t really have a rec room big enough to use it. And I _really_ don’t need a 500 lb. chalk board.

If it’s in a good condition, I guess you could use it as dining table top – but only if such a heavy and striking feature would work in your house.

The other idea that springs to mind is Freecycle in case anyone else in Scott’s area could use it as a pool table or whatever – but it sounds like he’d like to use it himself – so any suggestions? Remember crazy isn’t an issue : )

(Photo by cmx82)

Because of all the hoohah over identity fraud, we’re told that bank cards and credit cards need to be snipped up into a million pieces then strewn to the four corners of the earth, preferably into volcanoes and the like. But are there any green (yet still not fraud-risky) ways to recycle them instead?

And what about cards that don’t require such precautions? I have a whole wallet full of plastic credit-card-esque cards that have expired – like discount/reward cards, my old library card and the frequent flyer card from when I frequently flew.

Aside from breaking and entering locked warehouses in movies, anyone got any suggestions for reusing them?

(Photo by LotusHead)

A few weeks ago, we featured a post about old car batteries and I was surprised by the positive response – I thought they would thought they would be one of those things that are destined to sit around being really bad for the planet for millions of years.

So taking inspiration from that, are there any ways to recycle old type of other battery either when they’re used up or no longer rechargeable?

I’m thinking, primarily, about AA and AAA batteries (pencil and um, small thin pencil) ones because they’re the size that most people seem to use around the house but any ideas for any size battery are welcome.

(Photo by iwanbeijes)