We’ve had an email from Melanie:

I’ve got a bag of sea shells, whole and broken, I collected from a vacation in Mexico. The shells were interesting at the time, but not any more. I’m looking to give them to somebody who would use them for crafts. I’m already reusing a large shell to hold small miscellaneous items on my desk and being crafty with shells doesn’t appeal to me at this point in time.

I’ve attached a photo of the extra shells I have and a photo of my large “dish” shell (below).

If you specifically want to give them away to be reused, Freecycle might be the best way to go – someone in your local area might love them. Any suggestions on what that crafty person might do with them?

As for other more practical reuses, I suspect we’ll have some overlap with the mussel shells post but anything else Melanie could do with them?

(Heh, I put this in the “packaging” category – because they were sea creature packaging once ;) )

John and I went out for dinner the other day and someone on the next table to us was eating a big bowl of mussels.

After she’d finished her fishy starter, there was, of course, a big pile of shells left over – which naturally got my recycling juices going.

They’re not realistically compostable in most gardens because they’ll take so very long to break down and may attracted rodents in the meantime – so any suggestions for how they can be reused instead?

Are there any large scale recycling/reusing purposes for them that restaurants might be able to get involved with?

(Photo by lusi)

For reasons that seemed fun at the time, a few of years ago we halved and scooped out some coconuts. We clip-clopped up and down the street and around the house Monty Python style for a bit then the shells went in the cellar. There they stayed for a year or so then we found them, clip-clopped some more and then cellared them again.

Now, after a third bout of clip-clopping for the amusement of local children, the empty shells are now living in the garden and are really begging to be reused to save them from involvement in more repeat attempts at “humour”.

Any suggestions of things to do with them?

(Wonderful picture by minmax, c/o sxc.hu – because ours were too soggy to photograph well)

Oh lovely pistachio nuts. How sweet and salty your squishy insides are. How tough and protective your hard outsides are.

We’ve got a whole bowlful of the pistachio nut shells with no idea what to do with them.

We’re reluctant to just throw them on the compost heap because it seems such a waste to just ask them to rot down again (and they’ll probably take ages anyway) but that’s a last resort I guess.

Any ideas?