We’ve had an email from Gwyn:

Taking our tree down yesterday, we found 6 (six!) baubles were pretty much destroyed and only staying together through some sort of Christmas miracle and another 10 were fractured and set to go the same way. Bloomin’ cats!

They’re glass so I was thinking I could recycle them with our normal glass recycling but then my fella pointed out that they might not be the same type of glass and they’re all painted/varnished too.

Can we recycle them or not?

I’m not 100% sure but I suspect the answer is no because of the layer of paint – especially if the paint is some sort of acrylic matte stuff or is glittery. Anyone know for sure?

Depending on quite how smashed they are, you might be able to renovate some of them to make a feature of the broken bits – perhaps poke a thin paintbrush through a hole and varnish the insides to hold the cracks together, then place a tiny decoration in there.

Failing that, wrap them in some newspaper (so bits of glass don’t fly everywhere) and smash them up into smaller pieces, then use them to do a mosiac design on, say, a photo frame or something.

Any other reuse suggestions – other than getting baubles that bounce in the future? ;)

(Photo by fishmonk)