7 Reasons

Tag: recycle

  • Guest Post: 7 Reasons To Recycle Your Old CDs

    Guest Post: 7 Reasons To Recycle Your Old CDs

    Accessing music via your computer is now faster, easier and often cheaper than going to the shops and buying good old fashioned CDs. MP3 players and mobile-phones have combined to make your CD collection utterly redundant. But instead of chucking them, why not do a bit of recycling instead? Yes, that’s right. Recycle your CDs. Here are seven reasons why you should consider doing just that.

    7 Reasons To Recycle Your Old CDs
    Why you gotta recycle that compact disc? Because we want to! Because we want to!

    1.  Because You Can. When you bought that copy of Definitely Maybe back in ’94, the guy in the record shop probably didn’t tell you it was recyclable. But he should have done. Because it is. Almost 100% recyclable in fact. Probably slightly less if it’s something by Westlife, but recyclable none the less.

    2.  Logic. When you’ve finished your bottle of wine, do you stack it in the corner of the lounge with all the others? No, of course you don’t. When are you ever going to use forty-two empty bottles? Instead you pop them in the boot of the car and take them to the recycle bank. CDs are exactly the same. Are you actually going to listen to your collection of Now That’s What I Call Music CDs? You know, that collection you started when you thought it would be fun to try and buy every single version that came out – only you gave up in 1996 when they became tribute albums to Status Quo. Get rid of them. But, don’t trash that trash, do something useful and recycle.

    3.  Spread The Music. Assuming you’re not one of those emo-kids – and you don’t look like one – the chances are you won’t have scratched the back of your CDs in a moment of wallowing self pity. As a result they can be used again. By someone else. So give other people the chance to hear some great music. As strange as it may sound, someone, somewhere would just love to get their hands on your Showaddywaddy.

    4.  Damage Limitation. But what, I hear you ask, do I do if I am into that ‘scratching-CDs-with-a-blunt-compasses’ lark. Do not fear. Most CDs have scuffs or scratches that can be repaired, so you should be fine. If you’ve snapped them in half though and tried to repair them with a bit of tape, it’s probably a no go. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes there can be too much Phil Collins in the world.

    5.  The Flying Lizards. What better reason to recycle than to make yourself some money. The Flying Lizards didn’t sing about it, but online CD recycling sites such as Music Magpie allow you to trade in your unwanted CDs and get some money in return. With the extra cash in your pocket, you can always invest in some new music. If you’re really clever you could buy a CD, listen to it and then sell it. And then the process starts all over again.

    6.  Mr Nice Guy. Of course, you could show you have a caring side. Recycling your old CDs can benefit some great causes. Rather than simply pocketing the money you raise from recycling, you can send it straight to any number of very needy charity organisations. Which would be far more helpful to them than taking your Billie Piper CD to the local charity shop.

    7.  Piles. Of course, the main reason we should all recycle our unwanted CDs is the environment. Sadly, over 2,500 tonnes of CDs are thrown away each year, needlessly filling up waste landfills around the world. Quite frankly this country is in enough of a mess already. We don’t need piles of Cliff Richard adding to it.

    So, don’t waste another minute staring at that redundant CD rack. Sites in the UK and sites abroad like Music Magpie Germany will allow you to recycle your old CDs in return for some extra cash in your pocket to spend on that new download you’ve been previewing or perhaps in helping a local charity.

  • 7 Reasons That Carrier Bags are Baffling

    7 Reasons That Carrier Bags are Baffling

    The carrier bag might seem like a rudimentary bit of kit.  Basic, functional, easy to understand.  But it isn’t.  Carrier bags are, in fact, among the most baffling things known to humankind.  And by humankind, I mean me.  Here are seven reasons why:

    a bag of old carrier bags. Screwed up.

    1.  Because I Have Hands.  People in shops are endlessly, needlessly trying to force carrier bags on me.  But I don’t want one most of the time.  Often, I’m just buying one or two items.  And I don’t need a carrier bag in that circumstance.  How many hands does it take to carry a single item?  One.  How many hands does it take to carry a bag containing a single item?  One.  So I don’t need a bloody bag, do I?  It’s not difficult.  And I already have a bag; it’s that thing I’m wearing over my shoulder that looks like a bag.  But despite having both hands and bags, I am continually pestered to take the things.  And I don’t know why.

    2.  Because They’re Everywhere. I always try not to take carrier bags, but despite this, my kitchen is full of the things.  And every time I go in there, there are more of them.  I don’t know how – or when – the rise of the bags began, but they are inexorably usurping our cooking space.  We started off, like everyone does, with a bag of bags, and now we have at least a bag of bag of bag of bag of bags.  Well, more than one, actually.

    3.  Because I Don’t Know What To Do With The Things.  You might think this is the point where I’m going to make a few humorous and bizarre speculations on what one might do with a glut of carrier bags, but no, I’m not going to do that.  This is because I’m totally bewildered and overwhelmed by my surfeit of them.  I have no more idea of what to do with all the bags in the kitchen than I would have of what to do with a large, glittery, singing horse called Jemima in my dining room.  Less, in fact.  Or fewer?

    4.  Because Of Chavs. It seems that the only people that have any idea of what to do with used carrier bags are chavs.  They put them over the seats of their rusty mountain bikes and tie them down to the seat-post.  All of them do this.  But I have no idea why.  It’s not to keep their bottoms dry because they never remove the bag; even after rain.  It’s a further level of bafflement.

    5. Because They’re Not In The Same Condition I Left Them In. Occasionally, a rare and wondrous event occurs:  I realise that I’m going to have to carry some presents to a friend’s house, or I’m going for a walk in the countryside and there might be blackberries to pick, and I find that I will actually need a carrier bag.  And then I excitedly perform a brief, joyous dance – a bit like a jig – while singing repeatedly “I’m going to get rid of a bag, I’m going to get rid of a bag…” to the tune of A Life on the Ocean Wave.  But when I come to use them, I discover that at least 50% of the bags are torn.  But they weren’t torn when I put them into the bag of bag of bag of bag of bag of bags.  So what the hell has happened to them in the meantime?  Do they fight?

    6.  Because People Lie About Them. It’s not just that they’re all over my kitchen, mocking and taunting me, and confounding my every attempt to get rid of them that I find them baffling.  It’s that people actively lie to us about the things.  Don’t use carrier bags, environmentalists tell us; it’s wasteful; a lot of resources are used up in their manufacture; they don’t grow on trees.  But this just isn’t true.  Carrier bags do grow on trees.  I’ve seen them.  Just go outside and look at any urban tree and you’ll see the carrier bags growing on it.  And we’re obviously using far fewer carrier bags than the trees are producing, because we’re not harvesting them with any regularity.  That’s why there’s still a Woolworths bag growing in a tree near my house.  Even though they went bust bloody ages ago.

    7.  Because Of The Holes. We all know why there’s a hole at the top of the bag.  It’s to punish people that are stupid enough to try to put baguettes into them.  But no one knows why there are holes at the bottom.  Are they drainage holes?  Is it a government conspiracy to prevent us from moving water about easily?  Is it to prevent suffocation of animals, small children and Members of Parliament?  Is it to stop me from inflating the things and then bursting them (with hilarious consequences)?  Is it just to confuse us?  Well, if it is, it’s working.