How can I reuse or recycle … foil pet food trays?
Had an email from a fellow cat fan Jo White:
Our two cats are developing increasingly sophisticated appetites….they still have canned food but do occasionally like to have the food that comes in small foil trays. I’m loathe to throw them out and I don’t have a garden so re-using them for plant seedlings isn’t a solution unfortunately. Can they be recycled anywhere in the UK?
If they’re just foil, I think they can be recycled along with aluminium foil – is that right? if not, can they be recycled any other way?
And what about reuses? Any non-gardeny suggestions for Jo?
(Photo by Jo)
Fool your cats into thinking you forked out for the posh stuff by serving cheap tinned food in the foil trays. They’ll never know!
If you ever make candles, trays like that (and take-away trays) are great for your left-over wax.
Pour the wax into the tray while it is still hot. When it has cooled and hardened it can be stored in the trays and then easily removed for reuse.
Foil is recyleable; friends and aquaintances give me theirs, inc. the foil catfood trays. I sell it (washed and squashed) to a local scrapmetal dealer, (along with but in separate bags) ali. drinks and food cans. I donate all the proceeds to charity. (Not all my local scrap merchants will take the foil). Good luck.
I like your idea, Mike. I can try to raise some money for a charity too – my co-workers use a lot of canned drinks, tinned soups and foil package for their lunch! Can you tell me how did you find your local scrapmetal dealer please? I tried to google it and nothing sensible comes up :-(
decorate them and sell them as thing holders, like for jewelry or whatever.
Wash them and cover them with some wrapping paper. Use them for paperclips or other small things around your desk. That’s what I always do :)
scribble all over it then you wont feel so guilty because it looks like rubbish :D
Use them to make muffins! Or small breads depending on how big they are…
Cut or rip it into pieces ~ a half inch tall x a couple inches wide, engrave cute little words into them, and attach them to the front of homemade postcards.
Or take a couple, flatten them out, punch random holes with a nail, roll them into a cylinder and place a votive (in glass) or a tealight into it for a neat luminary. Crap, now I might have to go buy cat food for my non-existent cat just so I can try this.
I saw a really neat lampshade made from those food tins. It was in Marie Claire Maison. Unfortunately, I only kept a copy of the photos not the instructions. But I can send that to you.
Donate them to an art class..they could use them to mix paint.
Decorate them as a bit and use them as little dip holders for parties or kids
use them as small mixing vessels (for example I make my own beauty products and those would be perfect)
Though they don’t take it when they collect stuff for recycling – you can bring your foil (washed) to a local Civic Amenity Site, or a Recycling centre. They usually have bins for foil there. Look for it on your local council’s website. Also – nowadays lots of supermarkets have their recycling collection bins somewhere at the back of the carpark. I always combine shopping with recycling.
how can i put my rubby and can imack my own bin bacase i going new job and how can i do it?.
from sophie joyce
If you can’t make fat balls to feed the wild birds (because there are too many cats in the area) then you can safely dispose of any leftover cooking fat by pouring it in these little foil trays and letting it set. – Never pour fat down the drains!