4 ways to recycle cd jewel cases
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plastic jewel case for cds
Yesterday I began decluttering my office. A few years ago this would have meant numerous trips to the ‘tip’ with black bags bulging with unwanted items. Not anymore though! As a zero waster my challenge is to find new homes for items or dispose of them responsibly.
I came across several cd cases when I was sorting things out – the hard jewel cases. They were either damaged or unwanted so I searched around to look for solutions.
I’ve found 4 ways to dispose of them and I would love to hear your suggestions:
Reduce
If you burn your own cds; say for backing up your computer or storing family photos, instead of buying new cases, use up the ones you already have.
Reuse
Offer them on Freecycle. Often the cases get scratched, split or broken, so there may be someone out there who has a precious collection of cds with no cases to protect them.
Upcycle
Polymer Recycling tell me that jewel cases are made from polystyrene so get recycled into plastic hangers, goldfish bowls, children’s toys and artificial wood, such as decorative dado rails.
Recycle
London Recycling granulate jewel cases to be recycled back into new cases!
What about you – How do you get rid of your old cd cases? Tomorrow Mrs A has a plea for help, so on Thursday I’ll be discussing and finding homes for the discs themselves.
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amazing what you can get rid of on freecycle, I have just discovered mine,
Love the idea of the Polymer upcycling and London recycling – do you have addresses for these or collection points.
Thankyou.
I gave ours to my son’s band…they can put new CD’s and artwork in them, and save some production cost!
@sandy: Glad you’re finding Freecycle helpful, Sandy!
@Karen Mattos: Karen, if you visit their websites (links in the post above) you should find a ‘contact’ page with all the details.
@Miranda: what a fantastic idea, Miranda – for the budding future musicians 🙂
Hi Mrs G – the link to London Recycling doesn’t work.
Just to add that I contacted Polymer fully expecting to be told that they only take business consignments but no 🙂 they are happy to take packages from the general public as long as we’ve paid the postage 🙂
@LJayne: Hi Lesley, in the time I wrote the article I think the site has disappeared! Glad you had good responses from Polymer – I did contact all the people before writing so that it was applicable info for householders 🙂
Do the Recycling People take them. I’m considering taking my CD’s out of their jewel cases and putting them into clear plastic envelopes. I cannot reuse the chipped jewel cases so could pass on the intact ones through Freecycle.
@Teresa: It would be good to give them a call to check, Teresa – it’s quite a while since I wrote this article. I saw that Devon council take jewel cases the other day; do you have a friend who lives there?