We’ve had an email from Greg Charles:

I replace the windscreen wipers on my car quite regularly and hate having to just throw them away. I considered making a house window squeegy out of them but don’t know where to start.

I wouldn’t know where to start either (other than just lashing them to a pole and giving it a go) or if they would be angled right – I thought wiper blades usually had a small curve to them but could very easily be wrong.

Any advice or other suggestions?

(Photo by loyalrogue)

The suggestion–tastic Am (aka Delusion) has been in contact again:

Me again! The company I work at has just got rid of a number of software sets. The CD discs are shredded and recycled as it’s confidential waste however the DVD style boxes are not taken.

Is there anything they can be used for? I have used a few to replace damaged DVD cases I have but other than that, I’m a little stumped! If they can’t be reused, how about recycled?

I suspect a lot of the suggestions – like giving them to your local library – will have been covered in the CD case post from last year – but any DVD-case specific suggestions?

(Photo by heltje)

We’ve had an email from Angelica asking about how she can recycle mobile phone chargers.

Some charities/companies that take old mobiles accept the chargers too since they’ll re-sell working phones to the developing world (for example in the UK, Help the Aged) but this isn’t the case with every phone recycling scheme. It might be worth checking with the ones that do take chargers if they take chargers by themselves.

Another idea might be to offer it on your local Freecycle group in case anyone in your area needs a replacement or wants a spare.

Any other ideas?

(Photo by canoncan)

We’ve had an email from Peter Hughes asking simply:

How can I recycle memory sticks?

I’m presuming he means USB memory fobs and not the bits of strips of memory used inside computers – but when broken, the latter make fun keyrings for geeks.

I had an idea of incorporating a small USB stick into a necklace – as a pendant – or other jewellery but I intended these to be functional rather than just decorative.

So any suggestions on ways to recycle or reuse them if they’re broken?

(Photo by woodsy)

We’ve had an email from Brian Garrett asking about recycling satellite dishes:

I’ve got one in the garage (after upgrading to the latest version). My neighbors have some on their roofs that are unused.

What is the best way to recycle an unused satellite dish? These are the smaller DirectTV/Dish network dishes – not the big 6′ dishes.

I suspect the number of old dishes floating around is growing steadily as people (in the UK) are encouraged to flip back and forth between cable and satellite depending on the current offer of the moment.

So any suggestions?

(Photo courtesy of my neighbours across the street who have a satellite dish on the side of their house)