Envelopes? Easy peasy, a million reuses. Padded envelopes have plenty of reuses too. But what about plastic mailing bags? They seem to be the default choice these days for sending out fabric or clothing because they’re stronger/less likely to tear than paper envelopes or brown paper but also lighter so cheaper to mail.

If they’re neatly opened with scissors near the original seal, they can be reused as a slightly smaller mailing bag. Or you can use them instead of bin liners in small waste bins, or cut them into strips to make plastic “yarn” for repurposing projects.

They’re usually made from polythene, the same material as most plastic carrier bags, so can be recycled in the same places as those but you know me, I prefer to reuse than just recycle.

What else can we do with them?

Continuing with Alice‘s Reduce This questions from last week, she’s also asked:

Any thoughts on reducing paper used at work? In my housing co-op we send out several pages of minutes and agendas every month, and I’d appreciate any bright ideas about that.

We’ve covered ways to make offices and schools recycle more during our stationery week late last year but how about reducing the amount of paper generated in the first place?

My first thought is make sure all those minutes and agendas are absolutely necessary – not just whether it’s necessary to print them out but whether it’s necessary to minute in the first place. I used to work at a old-school university and we minuted every committee/group meeting, then circulated both electronic & paper copies to everyone involved. Then someone sat down and worked out which meetings had to be minuted by law/university rules – I think it was maybe two groups instead of a dozen. The other groups switched to just taking notes of action points instead of full minutes, which were just circulated electronically = a huge saving of both time and paper.

Any other suggestions?

Leigh of the scarves had another question – what to do with “name tags/nametag holders”:

you get them everywhere, but I have nothing to do with them!

I don’t know whether Leigh means conference name labels – either the pockets for use on lanyards (which we covered last year) or ones with safety pins on the back – or proper, personalised name tags for people working in public-facing positions and the like — so let’s do both.

When I used to organise conferences and events, I collected any badges leftover at the end of the day and used the pockets again for the next event – I suspect I wasn’t alone in doing that, especially in cash-strapped academia. So that’s a reduce idea: leave your conference name badge on the reception table at the end of the day and it’ll probably get reused again. The same thing might work for solid name tags if they’re first name only and you’ve got a reasonably common name.

But what about reuses? Any ideas?

Lizzy has left us a message saying:

Hello, right now I am staring at a metal central bit of a ringbinder, and wondering how to repurpose it.

I had a leather diary with it in the centre, with the pages on it. When trying to write on the left-hand page, the metal rings got in the way.

I am in the process of turning the leather part into a handbag, and am more successfully using the pages, now being held together by a treasury tag, but what to do with the six-ringed central metal bit…any suggestions?

I thought we’d cover this already but I think I’m getting it confused with the spiral of a spiral notebook.

So any suggestions?

• How can I reuse or recycle other random bits of stationery?: see our paper & stationery category for more ideas!

I was packing up some parcels the other day and so I didn’t lose it amongst all my mess, I slipped the sellotape onto my wrist like a big bangle.

Ooh, I thought, I bet once I’ve used up all the sticky tape, I could cover this in something like fabric, wool or wire and make a proper fun bangle.

And then I thought, hmm, I wonder what else I could use it for? And if only I knew of a website where I could put that question out to the wonderfully creative world and see what ideas they could come up with. If only!

All the ones I have are cardboard so they could just go in the recycling bin – or the compost heap since they’re usually not inky or anything – but I do like reuses. So, any ideas?

And what about those tiny plastic ones you get on Scotch tape rolls?

(Photo by hberends)