The Guardian’s Leo Hickman wrote an article yesterday about 3D glasses – how the current trend for jumping-out-at-you big screen action is causing a lot of waste: even with reusing and reconditioning schemes in place, around 7million pairs will be recycled into “plastic pellets” this year – and that’s not including the ones people have taken home.

We’ve only seen a few things in 3D – at the IMAX in Bradford – and we’ve always left the glasses there afterwards. But if we had taken them home (and if there wasn’t anywhere obvious for recycling, that’s what we’d have done), how could we have reused them?

The ones we’ve worn have been stylistic wonders – quirky-shaped plastic frames, which look particularly great over my normal specs…

• Craftzine linked to Christopher Paul’s painted plates – giving chintzy old plates a new lease of life (presumably just as artwork but still). A very fun idea!
• The Greenists ran a tutorial by Mudnessa on turning wide leg jeans into skinny ones – perfect if you fancy a change.
• Alison pointed us in the direction of this news story about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill – how hairdressers and transvestites are recycling stuff together to help soak up the oil
• Leo sent us an email to alert us to the RSPB’s second-hand binocular collection scheme – if you’ve got any old binoculars, telescopes or tripods lying around your house, you can donate them to the RSPB and they’ll use them in a conservation or educational project.
• And Joris sent us an email about Gumdropbins – fun bins to collect chewing gum – which are made from old chewing gum.
• It should be a bit late in the year for this type of thing but since the heating’s off & I’m thinking summery thoughts, the nights can still get pretty chilly – and that’s when hot water bottles with super snuggy recycled covers are just perfect.
• Finally, Alex from Just Cook It has been blogging about cooking with nettles recently – and the recipes sound fantastic. A great way to “reuse” those weeds from the garden!

Cor, I worked hard in the garden yesterday – I was ill all last week so was a week behind on everything, and gardens don’t tolerate being a week behind at this time of year, especially since I’m already a couple of months behind on some things!

I think though, aside from a few things for successive planting or winter crops, I’ve planted just about everything I want to try this year – a new garden so lots of experimenting — and lots of empty seed packets in my seed box.

Obviously they’re just paper so could go in our recycling bin but I thought it might be interesting to hear if anyone uses them for anything creative – or to help garden organisation/labelling.

Any suggestions?

(CCA photo by LollyKnit)

We’ve had an email from Julia, who work for the British High Commission in Abuja, Nigeria.

She explained “I hate throwing away those clear plastic tops from crisp tubes… so started thinking” – and she came up with some reuses for her regional recycling newsletter:

– Use to cover a glass to prevent insects flying in
– Cover a glass for storage in a fridge
– Find the right sized cup and use as an air-tight top
– Punch holes in it, fit over cup and use as a shaker
– Use as a coaster
– Decorate with coloured markers and hang as sun catches

Great reuse ideas – anyone got any more suggestions? I’ve used them under plant pots before now but the lip is so shallow that they’re more like coasters rather than water-catching saucers.

What can you do with the tubes themselves? Any recycling ideas?

(Btw, I can’t believe we’ve been doing this for four years and not featured Pringles tubes yet!)
Continue Reading →

I bent the prongs on my garden fork the other day. Not just a little bit, so the prong line was a little wobbly, but really quite substantially – one prong was about 60° back, the next one about 30°. Oh the fun of having a stone-filled garden.

We tried to realign it with an artful combination of banging it against a rock and jumping on it, and that straightened it up quite a bit – until I started using it again and the super bent prong instantly bent again — not quite as bad as the first time but still difficult to use as anything other than a pseudo-rotivator. I clearly don’t know my own strength, have a lousy forking technique – or just a lousy fork. I suspect the latter is a big part of the problem – someone bought it for me and while it’s not from Poundland, I doubt it’s the best quality fork available.

Is there any way to fix it so it won’t keep bending? Or now it’s been bent once, has it been weakened so it’ll keep doing it again?

If I have to buy a replacement, I want one that will last – any brand recommendations or things to look for? Or am I to blame – should forks only be used for light work and not digging up giant-squid-esque roots (as I was doing when the prongs went bendy)?

(Photo by MarkusHagenlocher c/o or Wikipedia)