Just because a tyre is too old and worn to use on a car, it doesn’t mean that it’s useful life is over.

Here’s our top five reuses for used tyres.

1. Planters for the garden

Used tyres can be used as instant planters in a garden – either wide and low containers on their own, or stacked up on top of each other to form higher planters. Some people think they’re ideal for things that need earthing up (like potatoes) or forcing (like rhubarb) as you can add and remove layers as needed.

However, other people are reluctant to grow vegetables in old tires since they can leach chemicals used in their manufacture into the soil and into the food.

2. Cold frames

Alternatively, used tyres can be used to make quick and easy cold frames to protect young seedlings. Place a tyre on the ground (so the plants aren’t sat on the cold earth) then place a piece of flat wood or some slats on top of that, and add another tyre to be the walls of the cold frame. Use an old window in a frame or piece of scrap perspex/clear plastic as the roof to let the sun in. For extra insulation/heat retention, fill the lower tyre and the walls of the upper tyre with straw or similar.
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Well, this isn’t so much as “reuse or recycle” question as saying “instead from leaving them there to rot, can conkers be used for anything fun or practical?” It is kinda a “reduce this” question too – can I reduce my use of something else by using conkers instead?

I picked up some conkers on a dog walk at the weekend – I couldn’t help myself because fresh from their slick shells, they’re a delight to touch – so shiny & smooth. Could they be used for decorative crafts? Any techniques for preserving the lustre?

Conkers are more correctly known as horse-chestnuts but they’re a completely different species to sweet chestnuts and are actually poisonous. Apparently though that poison can be harnessed for good – bowls of conkers can be used to deter spiders & moths from moving into your home/wardrobe.

And of course, they can be used for playing conkers.

Anyone know of anything else that can be used for?

(Photo by fredb2)

A couple of weeks ago on The Really Good Life, I was umming and ahhing about whether or not to buy an automatic chicken coop door. There were several reasons arguments for it but we don’t *need* one, it would just be a convenience – and I didn’t know whether convenience is worth £100.

The wonderful Alice helped me justify wanting to sleep later than daybreak and added:

Is there anything else you could give up or change to save the equivalent of £100 in a year to compensate? For instance I’d go a whole year without a takeaway to pay for being able to lie in all year, and that’d probably save me enough money over the year (as well as probably compensating somewhat in carbon/environmental terms). Can you “trade” anything else in your life that you don’t really need, motivated by knowing that the sacrifice is “paying” for the lie-ins?

As I said, Alice is wonderful and this is a great idea – and without naming any particular thing, I’ve decided to I’ll give up numerous often-fleeting wants over the next few months to (retrospectively) pay for it — mostly, I suspect, unnecessarily food while I’m out and about, stuff that can be easily done without and isn’t really missed outside of the moment — money thrown down the drain for little value.

Anyway I thought it would be fun to keep track of this money through a moneybox/piggy bank so I can see it building up (and at the same time, see how much I normally fritter away!) – and whenever I think something like that, the next thing that comes to my mind is: “how can I make one of those reusing or recycling stuff?”

So what can I reuse or recycle to make a money box or piggy bank?

Around our house, we already have some old coffee cans with slits in the tops for collecting change and my dad uses a giant old whiskey bottle from a bar for his pennies. They’re both very practical but I’d like something that’s a bit more fun if possible.

One idea I had was to make a papier mâché chicken from old newspaper and out of date flour. I imagine a hollow plastic ball could be used in the same way instead of the papier-mâché – and could be decorated in a similar way to become a rotund hen.

So any ideas?

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 :)