This site started from a bowl of pistachio nut shells.

After we gorged ourselves on their lovely innards, they, the shells, just sat there, looking useful and versatile – but we no idea what we could possibly do with them. Just throwing them on the compost heap seemed a waste – all the effort to make them tough and solid, and here we were just hoping they’d rot back down to mulch before the potatoes needed earthing up.

When we thought about it, we were in the same position with lots of things: leftover bits of food, old household items, empty containers of all shapes and sizes… And so this site was born.

More than three years on, we’ve covered over 600 items and had over 8500 suggestions of ways to reuse, repurpose or recycle things that would otherwise go in the bin. We’ve covered items from around the home, office and garden, things for particularly hobbies or sports, and random bits of technology that have broken or are just out of date.

We aim to add a new item every Monday, Wednesday and Friday – if you have any ideas for items, suggest them to us – all suggestions gratefully received. We’re currently in the process of writing more guides and the like, pulling together the best suggestions and information from across the site, and also adding more interactive features, which will hopefully make it easier for people to reduce, reuse and recycle.

We’ve been mentioned all over the place including a number of national newspapers and magazine in the UK (including The Times, The Telegraph and the Guardian), and on international green & craft websites including TreeHugger, ApartmentTheory and Craftzine.