Every now and then I search for something on Recycle This and am floored when I find we’ve not covered it. The most recent example: tin foil.

We’ve talked about possibly recycling aluminium foil for charity and about related items such as easter egg/chocolate wrapping foil, foil trays for pet food or pies and tarts, even the serrated boxes that silver foil comes in but not silver foil itself. Crazy!

It’s easy to reduce using it in the first place by swapping to using lids on tubs or bowls instead etc and reusable wrapping materials – and it’s widely recycled too — most kerbside/community bins for tin cans accept foil too. But what about reuses for it?

I know a lot of people reuse clean bits of foil as new. Do you do that? If not, do you have other reuses for nearly-new foil?

What about for “dirty” foil – stuff with food baked onto it?

(Picture by pasukara76)

They’re been some really great suggestions on Recycle This recently so I thought I’d highlight a few in case you’ve missed them.

• Scott Bedford popped by our conveniently timed post about how to reuse or recycle pencil stubs to tell us about the little insects he’s been making out of the ends of pencils and paperclips – like this pesky wasp.
• Alice in Blogland urged us to make cider from apple cores & peel rather than jam.
• Michelle had a suggestion to reuse and recycle old jars, toys & glitter to make snow globes as upcycled toys for small children.
• And speaking of old jars, Jessie suggested using them to make reusable jack-o-lanterns for Halloween.

Thanks to everyone who has left a comment recently – you’re all fab :)

The other week when I asked how people make their home baked goods last longer, Dani suggested using little packets of silica gel crystals to a biscuit jar to draw the moisture away from the munchables. (I’ve heard rice can be used in the same way.)

Dani’s comment got me thinking about other ways that those little sachets of silica gel could be reused. Dani gets hers from bottles of vitamins but they are often included with other things too – I’ve had them in shoes or leather bags/purses, or thrown in with deliveries of dried food items.

Care should be taken when reusing these pouches – because silica gel crystals can cause irritation to the repository and digestive tracts – but their moisture absorbing qualities are very useful: they can absorb up to 40% of its own weight in water vapour.

Looking around the web, people suggest using them to protect sensitive items from getting damp: important papers, seeds, camera/electronic equipment – even jewellery (the moisture adds to tarnish on silver). You can also use silica gel crystals to as cat litter – but I imagine you’d need a helluva lot of these little sachets to fill a tray.

What else can you do with them?

Over on The Really Good Life today, I’ve asked a question:

I’m not self-sufficient, so what I am?

I’m asking how people who grow their own food, making their own stuff, cook their meals etc define themselves — I might be alone on the issue but I don’t like calling myself “self-sufficient” because I’m not and I never will be, so it seems wrong & naive to call myself that. So I’m asking what other people in a similar situation call themselves or how they define their lifestyles.

I think there is similar terminology issue in the green sphere too – how do you define your green activities/lifestyle?

I see a lot of people taking back what were formerly insults: people calling themselves treehuggers, or crunchy, or “green freak”, “a greenie” or “dirty hippy” (all three phrases I’ve used to describe myself in the past week).

Aside from the general catch-all “environmenalist”, more serious/official labels stem from the idea of Bright Green, Light Green or Dark Green environmentalists – Bright Greens believe the way forward is through better designs for living, new technology & social innovation largely within the current political & economic society. For Light Greens, environmentalism is a largely a lifestyle choice and Dark Greens want to overthrow wasteful capitalism & hug the world until it stops crying.

What term(s) do you use/prefer when talking about yourself and your lifestyle? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!

Over on the Suggest an Item page, Kate asked:

What can I do with old pencil stubs, the used ones that are too small to write with any more?

Stubs of old crayons are super easy to reuse – just melt a load down into a new, easy-to-hold shape and off you go – but I suspect pencils will be harder.

I vaguely remember being a kid and taping two together, end to end, to make a slightly longer, double-ended pencil – and it seems you can buy gizmos to help you do that now (although I’m pretty sure I just used tape).

I also know that Jane Eldershaw of JunkJewelry uses the ends of pencils in her work.

Any other reusing or recycling ideas?