By complete coincidence, I’ve had a run of stationery questions over the last few days so I’m officially naming this week “Stationery Week” on Recycle This ;)

First up, we’ve had an email from Neil asking:

I have been asked about recycling lever arch folders and as they have three main components, I didn’t know how to recycle them. Please could you advise.

I’m a little confused as I can only think of three main components – the outside cardboard folder and the metal mechanism — is there something I’m missing? Either way, I’ve wondered this same thing before and with plastic covered ringbinders too.

Anyone know of any recycling schemes for them as they are? I presume if the cardboard folder bit isn’t plastic coated then once the metal has been pulled out, the cardboard can just go in for recycling as normal – is that the case? Can the metal be recycled too? What about the plastic coated card ones? I suspect they’re very difficult to recycle – anyone know for sure?

What about crafty ideas? If the cardboard is in ok condition, I imagine you could use transform it into a storage binder .. thing. (Words failing me… it’s Monday morning after all.) What I mean is, attach a pocket or strips of elastic to the inside and you could store, for example, knitting needles and the like in there — easy to browse but folds up neatly and sits on a shelf. Anyone done anything like that with it?

Other stationery items

• How can I make a notebook out of recycled materials?
• How can I reuse or recycle used envelopes?
• How can I reuse or recycle the spiral of a spiral bound notebook?
• How can I reuse or recycle hanging files?
• How can I reuse or recycle glue stick tubes?
• How can I reuse or recycle printer cartridges?

Here’s one I thought we’d covered (because it’s on Compost This) but apparently not: catalogues.

We got an IKEA catalogue through the post the other day – not one that we’d requested (because we wouldn’t do that) but just one spammed through the letterbox like a pizza menu. 180 pages of heavily printed paper that we’ll never use, sigh.

(I got, understandably, narked about the waste since presumably everyone on our street/estate got one but then John pointed out that it’s IKEA, home of semi-disposable furniture and random plastic things, so a few catalogues are probably not adding much to their overall footprint. But still.)

So obviously it could go straight into the recycling bin but what are the other options? Any decoupage suggestions or other paper craft stuff?

We’ve had an email from Renee, saying:

I use a lot of glue runner, and I want to know how I can reuse the cartridges/tape.

I’m more of a textile-based crafter than a paper one so I didn’t know what “glue runner” is – but after looking at the picture Renee sent over and a little of investigation around the web, I think it’s double-sided sticky tape on a cartridge for easy use (because double-sided tape is usually a right pain to work with) — please correct me if I’m wrong.

(I also wonder if this is what Jen was asking about back in February…)

So any suggestions?

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)