How can I reuse or recycle spent lottery scratchcards?

scratchcardRighty, we’re back in Blighty now and if I have to leave the house today, it’ll be a disappointment. We arrived back home about 10:30pm last night after an elaborate performance of airport security theatre, and boy, were the cats glad to see us again. It’s freezing cold here today but I don’t mind because I’ve got three furry hot water bottles attached to me :)

Anyway, this recycling thing. As well as noticing the great procedures in place for recycling glass bottles in Madrid, we also noticed a great love for lotteries in the city – every official office had a queue 90 miles long outside it (at all times of the day, every day) and there were lots of street vendors selling scratchcards too. Of course, because I’m a recycling nerd, I started to wonder what the options are with recycling scratchcards.

Once all the scratchy stuff has been scratched off and hopes dashed again, they’re just normal cardboard – right? So they can be recycled with other card – right?

If they’ve still got a lot of the scratchy stuff on them, can they be recycled? It’s typically latex based apparently.

Any fun reuses for them? Anyone doing any crafts with them? Gift tags perhaps?

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11 Responses to “How can I reuse or recycle spent lottery scratchcards?”


  1. una idea says:

    Hello,

    I read once an article giving ideas how to recycle business cards. I think it could work also for lottery scratch cards.

    http://www.core77.com/blog/featured_items/1_hour_design_challenge_winners_business_card_hacks_13353.asp

    The one I prefer is the tea holder bag.

    have a nice day !

  2. Bobbie says:

    Crochet the cards together and make a book bag, or purse.

  3. Use clothes pegs to attach them to the struts under your bike saddle so that they get flicked really fast by the spokes and you can pretend that you’re riding a 5 cc moped and you’re mates get well impressed.

  4. Ann Ellis says:

    Welcome back to Blighty Louisa!
    So, about the scratchcards – you could make christmas decorations: just cut out 20 circles from the cards (you can draw round a coin); inside each circle draw an equilateral triangle with the points going right up to the perimeter; fold up the card around all 3 edges of the triangles; glue the tabs of all these circles together to make a ball; punch a small hole in one of the glued-together tabs & attach thread/ribbon/string for hanging; decorate as desired.
    They made these on Blue Peter when I was little (although not out of scratchcards).
    PS: Alison (Bailey Smith) & I got to meet up at the Environmental Art Awards dinner – Hi Alison, it was lovely to see you.

  5. tiffany says:

    keep them, because if you ever actually win the lottery, proof of spending money on cards that were not winners can defray the cost of taxes on your winnings! or when ever you win you can post a message on here telling others to send theirs to you and say that you bought them

  6. Anna says:

    I am afraid you got a wrong impression about Spanish Lottery. Actually it is a Christmas tradition to buy lottery from Madrid for all the people (family or friends) living in Spain (45 million people). It is a present, mainly, so no fuss about giving something the other person could dislike. It is plain paper, no scratching, so there isn´t any recycling problem.

    More information:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Christmas_Lottery

  7. vic says:

    i collect used lottery tickets e-mail me please

    vv523@aol.com

  8. bart says:

    I use them to cover over holes of different sizes. Sometimes if the hole is too big, you have to use a few cards, but they can be had for only one pound, and that’s a cheap alternative to novelty corks or bespoke hole pluggers.

  9. Kennisha says:

    I would like to know can I recycle losing lottery tickets?



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