I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend – we don’t celebrate Easter but we do celebrate long weekends so had a great few days off ;)

On Sunday, we went to the Leeds Farmers Market (held on the 1st & 3rd Sundays of each month in the outside market bit) and amongst the other yummables, I got some dressed crabs one of the Whitby fish guys – mmm, meat in served its own carcass (or at least, the carcass of its prettiest unlucky fellow species-mate).

They’ve already been reused once already as a kooky serving dish but any ideas for reuses or recycling ideas now? I suspect there will be some overlap with mussel shells – and like with those, there will be different answers for people who only have them occasionally (like me) and people who have a lot to get rid of regularly (like restaurants).

So any suggestions?

(Photo by david.nikonvscanon)

We’ve had an email from Dean:

I have just had my eyes lasered and need a suggestion of where I can send unused trueye contact lenses? Also have some monthly disposables and two pairs of glasses?

Glasses – spectacles – are quite widely collected for recycling/reusing overseas — a lot of opticians have collection bins and some charity shops do too (Help the Ages, for example). Contact lens containers are also useful little things – eg, use them for carrying little amounts of salt, pepper or other seasonings on camping trips.

But what about the contact lenses themselves? Does anywhere collect them for redistribution overseas or anything?

Any suggestions?

• Wine cork noticedboards are pretty common but Craftynest have a new spin on it: a wine cork bathmat.
• I see a lot of upcycled wool jumpers and clothes turned into bags but this is the nicest example I’ve seen in a while – and I’m not just saying that because it’s my favourite colour.
• I love how a little bit of crochet transforms these simple jars into pretty lanterns.
• Check out this fun, flowery chandelier made from unwanted plastic bottles.
• Or if you’re a can drink, turn them into stars and a mobile/room divider.
• Finally, this one’s a bit meta – a link to more links – but Junk Jewelry’s Jane has collected together some upcycling ideas for fashionistas.

(Photo by CraftyNest)

(Oooh, alliteration!)

We’ve had a Compost This email from Charlie:

Can I compost those paper fairy cake cases?

I’m presuming the question is about used ones rather than a box of new ones (you’re not going to use them? Freecycle!) and the answer is a big, definite ‘maybe’.

The tiny cases I’ve got in my cupboard seem to be just paper so I’d probably risk those but other ones – particularly muffin cases and ones on bought-in cakes – tend to feel waxier. It might be that they’ve just been treated (supercalendered to make glassine) and are still just paper, but it also might be that they’ve been treated with a plasticizing agent, which may or may not be natural, and so may or may not be something you want in your compost heap. If you’re not sure of the composition of the material, it’s probably best leaving them out.

(If you’re baking at home and your cakes are always going to be eaten in the home, it might be worth getting some reusable cake cases – although they tend to be made from silicone so have a higher initial impact than paper ones.)

Thoughts?

We’ve had an email from Anna:

Hi! I’ve just been reading how bad talc is (oh my god it’s bad!) and no longer want to use it on my body. Is there anything I can do with it instead?

I’m not an expert on talc – I’ve not used it for years anyway so not read up on it much – but from a brief Googling around now, it seems the main problems with it are an increased cancer risk (most notably ovarian cancer, often but not always related to the application of talc around the genitals) and pulmonary issues related to inhalation. The inhalation thing may limit the potential reuses – but does anyone know of any?