Here's a competition which looks right up Lifehacker's alley. As part of a honours course at Swinburne uni, a group of students are creating a book called "101 things to do with 'old' technology" and they're running a competition to get ideas from the public.

Get creative and make us your own little sketch of what you'd do with an "old grey box". You can be as serious, as funny, or as strange as you like with your entries. All entries will be published in the book for our Swinburne University Honours project, and your name will be published with it too, if you wish.

Entries are in the form of black and white line drawings - head on over to the post at Melbourne Maniacs for further details on how to enter. Entries close on May 26.

Competition: 101 Things to do with Old Technology [Melbourne Maniacs]

A reader at frugal finance blog Get Rich Slowly suggests shredding your junk mail and using it to mulch your garden. To avoid killing your garden with inks and metals leeching off the shredded paper, the author uses the following guidelines:

• I only shred the non-glossy stuff, and try to avoid coloured ink as much as possible. Since I'm shredding to avoid identity theft in the first place, and credit applications these days contain coloured ink, I can't stay 100% black and white, but I can accept that.

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In honour of Earth Day, Yahoo put together a "Free Is Good" web site promoting previously mentioned Freecycle, local mailing lists of folks who give away stuff they don't need. Pop your city and state into the search engine and get a map back of nearby groups. The Freecycle groups themselves are Yahoo Groups, so you have to join the group using your Yahoo ID to see messages (and often a moderator has to approve the membership request.) From there you can offer stuff you'd throw away anyway to give to your neighbours for free, and take them up on their offers, too.

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Web site Rehash is like an online swap meet for clothes and accessories. According to the site, the average American throws away around 68 lbs. of clothes per year—Rehash is a place to recycle those clothes and get something in return. Once you've joined, you can list anything you want to exchange, along with items you're looking for. Rehash trades can happen either in person or through shipping, though the site doesn't have anything in place to help you with shipping. Obviously Goodwill is always there to take your clothes donations so that you aren't trashing your unused clothes every year, but if you're looking to get something in return, Rehash may be a good place to do it. Thanks Antonella!

US-centric: Recycle your old electronics for free with the US Postal Service's new "Mail Back" program. The program, which allows you to discard your used electronics in an environmentally friendly manner, provides free envelopes in 1,500 post offices to read more »

Green publication E magazine says you can recycle more stuff than you might think, and offers a reference on the right places to recycle everything from iPods to record albums to styrofoam to batteries to cars. If you've got old office supplies and miscellaneous materials, you may be able to recycle that, too:

Many states have "material exchanges" where odd stuff is collected and made available to the public for use. Outdated calendars, office paper that is used on one side, wallpaper, flooring samples, crayons and other stuff is gladly accepted by Materials Exchange Centre for Community Arts in Eugene, Oregon. [...] To see if there's a materials exchange near you, search Google.com for "materials exchange" or call your local hazardous waste department.

Looks like a useful bookmark to check out before you order up the dumpster.Photo by diongillard.

A poster to the eco-australia blog has put together a helpful guide for maximising your recycling mojo and reducing the amount you put into landfill.

Local resources for rehoming your old stuff include  Freecycle Today and e-Cycled. The Australian Giving Centre lists organisations that will accept donated blankets, clothes, computers, mobile phones, furniture, bikes and more.

Along with some useful links to places you can recycle stuff, it also has a checklist you can use to work out if you can find a home for your old stuff before putting it in the bin:

1. Can it be recycled?


2. Can it be composted?


3. Can it be donated?


4. Can it be sold/traded?


5. Can it be given away free to a friend or neighbour?


6. Can I use it for something else?


7. Can I make it into something else


8. Where is the best/safest place to dispose of it (if it is dangerous to the environment eg. paints)?

I would also highly recommend calling your local council or checking their website for a guide to what you can recycle through their rubbish collection service - the Port Phillip Council in Melbourne has a very useful 1 page guide which said what kind of household items can be recycled and which can't - along with translations of the different recycling codes you find on plastic bottles and the like. Stick it on your fridge!

So how's your recycling mojo? If you have tricks for reducing, reusing or repurposing things, please share in comments.

Recycling Links [eco_australia]

You already know you can turn that old t-shirt into underwear yourself—but if sewing's not your thing, hip undie company Solojones will do the recycling for you. Ship them your concert, race, techie schwag or any other tee to reincarnate, and they'll turn it into a pair of bottoms—a neat gift for the ladies. The transformation works best with stretchy shirts, and it'll set you back $30 (or $45 for two right now).