We’ve had an email from Brett, saying:

Hi, I saw your lip balm story last week and it reminded me about something. We go through loads of Pritt Stick at work. What can we do with those empty tubes?

I’ve contacted the company that makes Pritt Stick about the recycling side of things but until they get back to me, does anyone have any reusing ideas?

Office or school related ideas would be best as I suspect that’s where they’re used in the largest quantities but any ideas would be welcome. :)

(Photo by gradient)

(By the way, would it make me sound like a wannabe glue sniffer if I mention how much I’m now craving a smell of UHU magic glue sticks after seeing pictures of them in my picture search? ;)

We’ve had an email from Sara:

I am in charge of stationery orders at work, and I have recently been asked to order “rubber thimbles” because we have worn them out. So I looked at all these little rubber thimbles, and thought, do these all have to go to waste? Other than being jaunty little hats for stuffed toys around the office, what else can I do with these things?

Everyone has agreed before I order new ones we have to think of something to do with the current ones!

Hehe, I like the jaunty hat idea – I also love that your colleagues have agreed to holding off on reordering new things until the old ones have been dealt with.

Rubber can be recycled but I don’t know if m/any recycling companies would be interested in such small items. Anyone know?

And any other suggestions?

Over the last week or so, we’ve had just about a bazillion (ok, about 130) brilliant comments and suggestions from Gulia (thanks Gulia!) and if that wasn’t enough, she’s also sent a clever idea over too for something we haven’t featured yet:

I take hanging file folder and straighten it . Then I glue on it a poster, picture , interesting fabric or a group of photographs.

Finally, I knock two nails into a wall, and hang my creation with plastic edges that stick out.

My last-but-one place of work used to have loads of suspension files, well, hanging about which wouldn’t be used again because they were the wrong size for all our filing cabinets – and I’m sure they’re is far from unique, so this is a great idea to use them up. Sticking in the office environment, you could glue/staple large corner mounts on it and use it as a pin-free noticeboard.

Any other suggestions of things to do with them?

Hurrah! We’ve had a “Reverse This” question from Kathryn for our new, hopefully regular feature – Recycle This working backwards :)

Kathryn says:

I’ve been into recycled crafts lately, and want to make a notebook out of recycled materials. How can I do this with easy stuff found at home?

Ooh, I’m sure there are loads of ideas for this one, probably somewhat more creative than my usual bulldog-clip-around-scrap-paper efforts.

Any suggestions what Kathryn can use for covers? Or ways to hold it all together?

• Got something you want to make out of recycled stuff but need a bit more inspiration? Send me an email about it and I’ll feature it on here: reversethis@recyclethis.co.uk

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)