We’ve had an email from Rebecca:

I have a grill I no longer need, but it’s a bit grotty so I don’t think I could sell it on. It looks like this –>

Are there any facilities for recycling items like this? It seems a waste to bin it, but it’s difficult to clean so we couldn’t get it into a resaleable state.

In the UK, it will be covered by the WEEE Directive so the place you bought it from might take it back – or if nothing else, there should be an electricals spot at your local “household waste sorting site” (ie, the local tip), where they’ll get disposed of properly.

If it still works though, it would be a shame to scrap it just because it’s a bit grotty. If you don’t think you can sell it, try giving it away on Freecycle instead – someone might be grateful for it in whatever state it is in – particularly if they have a non-food use for it. The only non-food use that springs to mind instantly is for making shrinky-dinks but I bet someone with some electrical knowledge could use the heating element/timer for something fancy and useful.

Any other ideas?

We’ve had an email from Karen, asking:

Do you have any suggestions on how I can recycle 35mm slides in wallets?

I suspect that on a crafty level, they could be used in similar ways to photo negatives and the like but as Karen is a Environment & Waste Management Officer at a university, I suspect she might have more than can easily be reused – so does anyone know if there are any ways to actually recycle them?

Any other slide-centric reuse suggestions?

(Photo by Hutschi)

Finally on this week’s Recycle This stationery theme, we’ve got this question from Nicole:

Now all my college’s lecture rooms FINALLY let you use powerpoint, I can get rid of all the OHP lecture notes I’ve created over the years. What can I do with them?

According to Wikipedia, most transparencies are sheets of cellulose acetate. The Google results are confusing but I think cellulose acetate can be recycled but I suspect it’s carried out more at a manufacturing level than post-consumer. Anyone know for sure?

What about reuses? I imagine they can be used like old photo negatives to make lampshades and the like – probably would work better for those with photocopied pictures, diagrams or text on rather than hand-written notes. Other ideas?

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?

We’ve kinda already the memory stick thing before but we’ve had an email from Michael which expands on the idea a bit:

Is there a charity or anything that redistributes old memory cards and USB keys? I’ve got some old flash cards from my old cameras and some SD cards too as well as the memory sticks. The biggest are 256kb so I doubt they would be worth selling but they all work, I’ve just got bigger storage ones now.

I have no idea I’m afraid but I like the idea – does anyone know of anything? (In fact, I like the idea so much that if there isn’t already a group doing it, I’ll set up a scheme to collect and redistribute them myself.)

And any reuse ideas for if they’re broken?

(Photo by fanf)

Nigel, who uses old audio tapes for community health projects, has put this request on the audio cassette tape page and I thought it was worth featuring more prominently:

Hi everyone, I am now after any old 8mm film reel or any old and unwanted home movie footage on video or film.

Also any old photo slides as we need them for a film project we are doing but it has to be your images such as old family stuff as we cannot use any copy written stuff.

Doesn’t matter what of and from where as we will use bits if you know what I mean.

Send to me at ACT,West House, Lombard Street West, West Bromwich, West Midlands B70 8EG.

So if you’ve got some stuff hanging around, send it over ;)

(Photo by bop)