How can I reuse or recycle a rusty cheese grater?
(My! doesn’t that sound like a smutty euphemism? :) )
We’ve had an email from Alicia:
Because a leak caused damp, all the metal stuff in my kitchen cupboard went rusty while I was on holiday. Didn’t think that could happen but it has! There is a square grater, a colander and a seive. Can I do anything with them?
I’ve de-rusted a cast iron griddle pan and we regularly have to de-rust our less-than-perfectly-seasoned wok but I imagine it might be harder work to restore holey things like that – anyone got any advice on repairing them and protecting them so they don’t continue to rust?
I’ve seen all three used as fun light fittings (eg this Instructable uses a colander as a ceiling light shade). If you don’t want them rusty, you could sand them back to get rid of the flakiness and paint them to protect it from future rust and give it a new look.
Failing all that, they’re some sort of metal so can be recycled in the metal scrap bin at your local tip/waste collection site.
Any other suggestions?
To reuse for long time and avoid rusted you can warm it after each use
Soak the rusty cheese grater in Coca-Cola — seriously!
I just saw a picture of a cheese grater hanging on a bedroom wall to hold earrings in this month’s Readymade magazine. An old one not fit for food coould be sanded and pinted for this.
The colanders could be used as a hanging basket i think, we used cheese graters as light fixtures last year, good uplighter, but some people can’t face graters on the walls.
Just seen a student exhibition on Friday that had flattened rusty chees graters set into plaster at the Williamson Art Gallery Birkenhead.
Use it to grade soap leftover pieces, thus reusing both items at once. Use soap shavings for a bath or laundry.
I have, over the years, invested in stainless steel graters, whisks, mesh strainser, etc. Worth it.
Remove rust and paint it for display.
Attach it sideways to the wall so your cat can rub against it.
Colllect different shradable materials and make YouTube video how you do it with rusty shredder. :) Plenty of people like watching such videos. :)
If you have anemia, shred your fruits and vegetables on rusty iron shredder for extra iron in your body.:)