Practical Recycling & Reuse – Part I

Spoon rests and such for the kitchen from plastic fish trays

In the British Isles when buying prepackaged wet fish the product invariably comes on plastic trays, mostly clear plastic material – the grade of which I do not know, e.g. whether it is PET or PP or whatever – and, with most people, I am certain, those trays end up in the garbage or, if lucky, then in the plastics recycling bin.

But, as we have spoken about before: we must think reuse before thinking recycling.

Those trays, some shallow, some deeper, make great spoon rests for the cook in the kitchen and save money in the process and the environment at the same time. OK, fine, the comes a day when, finally, such tray comes to the end of its life and will go to the great recycling bin in the sky, so to speak, but before that we can still get some use out of it.

In addition to this there are other uses too, such as as trays in drawers – no, not in female underwear.

In addition to the use in the kitchen those plastic trays also make useful trays for pens and such items on a desk. While this may not, as yet, at this moment in time, be a fashion statement on an office desk, we never know whether we might end up setting a trend, and in time it might just be that, once people's concern for the environment increases more and more, it might just catch on and become rather fashionable to have such kind of trays on one's desk whence to put one's pens and such items.

© Michael Smith (Veshengro), February 2008