MetaFilter posts tagged with recycling

Where your recycling goes

caddis — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:57:50 -0800

Your cafefully separated recycling heads to the dump. Reporters in D.C. follow some of the trucks around town and watch them dump the trash and the recycling together into the same truck. (previously)

Beating Swords into Plowshares, Micronesian-Style

barnacles — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 12:34:15 -0800

The Pacific theatre of World War 2 left many traces behind. The shipwrecks of Chuuk Lagoon are probably the most famous, but they're hardly the primary reminders of former military action present in the day-to-day lives of many Micronesians. Besides the many large-scale remains of the war, such as abandoned airfields Quonset huts, and abandoned bunkers, many Micronesians live with recycled WW2 materials of a smaller kind. Marsden Matting is one of the most commonly seen pieces of WW2 materiel, and Marsden airstrips still exist. The materials have also found new life as walkways, construction materials, and, most often, as fencing (2). In the Marshall islands, Japanese military rice cookers have been turned into water catchments, and 127 mm ammunition boxes have been repurposed as water catchments, storage lockers, and copra driers. The scavenging of airplane parts is perhaps the zenith of Pacific war recycling. B-24s, in particular, presented a wealth of parts that found new peacetime purposes, such oxygen cylinders, propellors, and fuselage pieces. Even after the war, the US military was leaving behind items that the local people found useful: drop tanks from F-86s. For even more photos and text about Micronesian military recycling, check out this PDF (note: 7 MB).

Just one word - Plastics

Antidisestablishmentarianist — Tue, 26 May 2009 09:26:51 -0800

Even if cars soon start running entirely on electricity or hydrogen, they'll still need 100 gallons or more of oil to make their plastic parts...

You've got (junk) mail (and craft materials)!

orange swan — Sun, 24 May 2009 14:52:44 -0800

Your household probably gets something like 800 pieces of junk mail per year. Other than sighing and tossing the junk into your recycling bin, what are your options? Of course, I’d urge you to support any one of the numerous current anti-junk mail campaigns (do be aware of any possible conflicts of interest), but until those measures take effect, there is always crafting. You could make pop-up Christmas cards, Easter cards, or reminder cards. You could make envelopes, or simply turn old envelopes inside out for a second useage. You can make gift bags, or recycled handmade paper, decorate your paper clips, or make a homemade filing system. You could make a dress and matching clutch for the upcoming Postman’s Ball, hats for your child’s birthday party, or save the junk mail for your child’s craft supplies box. You could also make a wreath, tree ornaments, a table or two, shag carpeting, or window blinds. Or you could make art out of your junk mail. Patricia Zapata, of the blog A Little Hut, explains how to create junk mail art in this podcast. You could make collages like artist Sandy Schimmel, or junk mail trees like Florida State University art professor George Blakely. If you’re feeling especially militant about the anti-junk mail cause, you could make a tank to let everyone know. And if none of the above ideas work for you, check out these lists.

Barefoot and crafting in the kitchen

orange swan — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 10:26:33 -0800

If you’ve got extra kitchenware about is never used to cook or contains food anymore, here are some (low calorie!) ways to use it again. If you’ve kicked your caffeine habit, your metal coffeepots can become lamps, or your teapot can morph into a camel. Other items of kitchenware can become recycled toys. If you now eat oatmeal instead of muffins for breakfast, your child might enjoy the novelty of a muffin tin meal, or making recycled crayons, or counting down the days until a birthday. Muffin tins can also be used as a way to display curios, or collages, or become wall art. If you’ve sworn off cookies, your old cookie sheet can become an Advent or perpetual calendar. Cookie tins can be redecorated, or turned into a coin bank or purse. Cookie tins can become tambourines, ukuleles, or banjos. Or they can become clocks, bracelets, ribbon and string dispensers, or figurines. However, if as you craft you find yourself scarfing down the crumbs that lurk in the crevices of your old cookie tins, you are probably not over your cookie habit and should reserve at least one baking sheet and tin for their original purpose.

Crafting can be the perfect way to cap off your St. Patrick's Day celebration!

orange swan — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:04:12 -0800

For St. Patrick's Day, rather than show you how to knit your own leprechaun or make a hat out of a ice cream container (because who the hell wants to do that), I'm going to help you with your after party cleanup. You'll have lots of bottle caps and wine corks lying about afterwards, so here are some ideas on what to do with them. Bottle caps lend themselves to making interesting jewelry: resin necklaces, brace lets, small pins and brooches, beads, or rings. Here are some tips on how to make bottle cap jewelry. You can also make a purse, hairbows, keychains, magnets or mini pin cushions. You can make a trivet to suit your taste: plain, covered in plain crochet, or covered in whimsical crochet. You can decorate a picture frame simply or elaborately, or decorate your kitchen cabinets or table tops. You can make Christmas decorations. Or you can avoid paying to have the car repainted. You can create tiny artwork, or like artist John T. Unger make mermaid or fish mosaics. You can make a dragon mosaic, or just embellish mosaics made from other materials, or make portraits like artist Molly B. Right. See this article for some other ideas on how to use bottle caps. If you favour wine over Guinness, you have options for what to do with the corks. You can make earrings, or stampers, trivets and coasters, place-card holders, or bulletin boards. You can decorate a mirror frame. You might make some Bacchanalian wreaths, or a garland. For Christmastime reminders of festivities past, you can make a miniature Christmas tree, or decorations for your full-size tree: clowns, snowmen, Santas, or reindeer. You can make a mural, or a self-portrait. You can make a lamp, a table top, or a chair. You can use wine corks as baseboards, or as the wall. You can make a birdhouse, or mulch plants. Again, there’s really no need to pay to have the car repainted. If none of these ideas pop your cork, see this thread for more suggestions on how to use them. And if you really have enough bottle caps and wine corks lying around to make more than a few of these projects, next year I would like to be invited to your St. Patrick’s Day party.

Have a forking good time crafting!

orange swan — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 20:29:04 -0800

If you have too much mismatched cutlery to fit in your kitchen drawers, take a stab at crafting with it! Make a wind chime, fork key ring, fork cup rings or coat hooks, make cutlery clocks, or light fixtures such as these by designer Ali Siahvoshi. Or you can make jewelry: fork bracelets, a fork necklace pendant, or collaged spoon necklace pendants like those made by SpoonFedArt. Forks and spoons make groovy rings. Here’s how to make spoon rings. For more inspiration, check out this cutlery chair sculpture by Osian Batyka-Williams, this cutlery table by Toni Grilo, some sculpture by Matthew Bartik, Vince Pompei’s whimsical silverware flowers, clocks and sculptures, or the items at Forkometry. Just don’t get so carried away with your new craft that you find yourself having to eat with your fingers.

Poo.

cjorgensen — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 12:18:05 -0800

A new use for Poo. (via.) Related uses: Poo. Poo. Poo. Poo. Poo. Poo. Coffee Poo: Poo. Poo.

It's curtains for your old linens!

orange swan — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:17:05 -0800

Does your linen closet runneth over? Yes, you say, you have a stack of towels you regularly use in the bathroom and for swan origami, but you have others that are getting worn. You have tablecloths and aprons you never use, your dish towels seem to breed in their drawer, and you have pillowcases which have outlasted their matching sheets, king-sized bed sheets for the bed your ex took when you split, and your linen closet contains a selection of linens that are faded or torn or leftover from former decorating colour schemes. What are you to do with them? Well, you could make a beach towel, bathrobe, hooked bathmat or comfy bathroom pillows out of your excess towels. Your tea towels can be turned into slippers, a window valance, bench cover or cushion. If you need an apron, you can make one out of an extra pillowcase. If you have an apron and don’t need it, you can make it into a curtain. Old pillow cases can become a Christmas stocking, placemats or seat covers, and old quilts can become headboard upholstery. An old print bedspread can become a number of coordinating accessories for your bedroom. Sheets have lots of possibilities because there is so much fabric to work with. They can become pillowcases, curtains, the lining for a sewing project such as a child’s jacket, or a summer dress. If your linens are too worn to be serviceable as fabric, cut them into strips and braid or crochet the strips into a bowl or potholder or a rug. Check out these articles for more ideas on how to reuse household linens. And then smile as you behold your new, useful items that you made yourself, as you survey your linen closet which is no longer stuffed with items you’ll never use, and as you tell your ex you just don’t know where the sheets for the king-sized bed could have gotten to.

Last one to craft is a rotten egg!

orange swan — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:11:55 -0800

You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs, and you can’t buy eggs without winding up with egg cartons. What will you do with the empty cartons? Well, you could make a string of flower lights, lamps, or a pendant light. If you refrained from drinking too much egg nog over the holidays, you might be lightweight enough to make use of a egg carton seat. This company makes footstools out of egg cartons. You also could make a truck or a T-Rex costume for your kid. You could make a bulletin board, get organized or store small objects, use the carton as a paint palette, or turn the carton into a loom for weaving scarves. You could start some tomato or coriander and chives seeds for spring, or use the cartons as molds for concrete. If you’re really desperate to improve the sound quality in your studio or to find something to wear to the ball, egg cartons are one option. You can also make sculpture or the Mona Lisa. Or, like Dutch artist Enno de Kroon, you can make original paintings using egg cartons as your canvas. This article has some other ideas for how to re-use egg cartons. And now you can get ~~cracking~~ crafting.

My crafty Valentine, sweet recycled Valentine...

orange swan — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 17:51:11 -0800

You forgot all about Valentine’s Day and now must come up with an extra special momento to pacify your beloved. Or you are sitting home alone with no way to celebrate V-day. In either case, it’s crafting time! You can recycle things you probably already have to make Valentine’s Day trinkets. You can start by making a card with scrap yarn, or from wrapping paper. You can make gift bows or a heart-shaped candy basket from recycled magazines, and a gift bag from a newspaper. You can make a love letter box from an old box. The kids or the artist in your life might like to get heart-shaped crayons, made from stubby old crayons. If you’ve got nice former Valentine’s Day souvenirs sitting around, you can use the old candy boxes to make a picture frame or a Valentine clock, or make Valentine mobiles from old cards. You can make heart shaped pillows from old linens, napkin rings out of cardboard tubes, or plain old glass jars to make vases. If you cherish memories of your exes, you can decorate with your old cards. Or, like artist Gila Rayberg, you can make mosaic Valentines. If none of these ideas inspire you, you could just take some advice from irrepressible romantic Jean Teasdale, who has lots of creative ideas for how to celebrate February 14th, with or without a sweetheart.

Sock it to me, eco-crafters!

orange swan — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:51:55 -0800

What can be done with worn, outgrown or single socks? Well, if you want to wear those favourite socks awhile longer, you can darn them. If your baby’s feet are no longer so tiny, make a baby sock purse or sachet, baby sock reindeer, or baby sock corsage or bouquet decorations for a friend’s baby shower. You can make a hat out of your child’s outgrown socks, or your kids can make Barbie clothes. You can use single socks to make a foot massager, potholders, slippers, a dog rug, a snowman, sock puppets or cute critters. Or sock art installations. See these articles for more pedestrian ways to use socks.

Redefining the term "makeup artist"

orange swan — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 08:13:14 -0800

You’re a former diva who’s decided to eschew cosmetics and let your natural beauty speak for itself, or you just find yourself with drawers full of makeup that you’ll never use. What will you do with all these products? Well, you can consolidate your lipsticks, check out these five ways to use or recycle old makeup, or see the reader comments in these threads for more tips. You could make a snake out of your old fake nails, or take a look at this list of 20 things to do with old nail polish. When your mascara gets too old to be safely used on your eyes, you could sketch a tree with it, or Bette Davis. Here are some tips on how to use makeup as an art medium. And if you decide to paint with your old makeup, please start with the blue eyeshadow and mascara. Merci.

Your suitcase doesn't suit you? Tired of lugging that luggage?

orange swan — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:24:38 -0800

If you’ve got a shabby old suitcase and want to give it a makeover, you could always découpage it. Or disguise it as a watermelon. If it doesn't have wheels, you can add some. If you aren’t traveling much these days, you could put a synthesizer in your suitcase. Or turn it into a pet bed, or a planter. Suitcases can be used as an end table, or turned into chairs and ottomans. The pockets from old suitcases make useful additions to bulletin boards. And if you have unused purses, here are some ideas on how to repurpose them. For info on getting rid of/transforming other types of baggage, see AskMe.

Don't hit the books; craft with them

orange swan — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:57:51 -0800

So, you have some old books lying around you don’t read and that you're pretty sure no one else will ever read because they have pages missing or they’re hopelessly outdated technical manuals or they never should have been published in the first place. What to do? As always, crafting is an option. You can make a wrist cuff, or a purse. Book covers can be made into clocks, or photo frames, or photo and card stands. They can become CD and DVD cases, or a hiding place for valuables or necessary contraband, Shawshank Redemption-style. You can make yourself a diary, notecards, envelopes, or gift tags. If you’re feeling more artistic than practical, some people use the pages from a book as a canvas. Artist Su Blackwell brings scenes from her books to life: check out Alice’s Tea Party, or this scene from The Snow Queen. Personally I feel strangely drawn to this piece. Noriko Ambe sculpts with his books; Stefano Arienti created this installation, and Brian Dettmer took a scalpel to his and did some “Book Autopsies”. There are more ideas for things to be done with books to be found here and here. And will you die-hard book lovers kindly stop screaming. It’s not like I wrote a post on how to craft with your mother. Yet.

Should auld calendars be tossed out, and never brought to mind?

orange swan — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 10:21:53 -0800

As 2009 approaches, you’re taking down your old calendars and wondering what to do with them. You still enjoy those Monet/Jeff Foxworthy/rose garden/Playmate images so much you hate to throw them in the recycling bin. Don’t worry, there are ways to reinvent that calendar so you can enjoy those images for years to come. For starters, you could make envelopes and notecards out the calendar. Though perhaps you won’t want to use your new Playmate stationery to write to Grandma. Calendars can be turned into recycled wrapping paper and bows. If you’re a real packrat and have a ten-year-old calendar kicking around, you may be able to turn it into a calendar for the current year. Calendars can become lampshades or mobiles. If you’re into decoupage, you know that you can decoupage practically anything, from a waste basket to old suitcases to flower pots to your shoes. And there are lots of other possible project ideas. If you’ve got an old planner you liked, you can make one like it and reuse the old cover. And as you craft on New Year’s Day, you can savour the irony of using the act of memorializing the old year to try to forget your alcohol-enabled indiscretions of the night before.

High Craftibility: crafting with old vinyl records, cassette and VHS tapes

orange swan — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 17:17:21 -0800

Audio visual technology changes so fast that if you’re of a certain age you’ve been left holding the bag of cassettes, VHS tapes and vinyl records. What will you do with these AV artifacts if you no longer want to play them? Have no fear; you can have lots of crafty fun with your real audio. You can make a cassette tape mini journal, a cassette wallet or cassette coin purse, or a mini cassette lamp. If you’re into melting stuff, you can make a sculpture, such as this skeleton, from the plastic. The tape can be crocheted or knitted into items like totes, evening bags, Barbie halter dresses, or baby booties. If you’ve got old VHS tapes kicking around, the boxes can be turned into storage cases, or a chair. You can crochet with VHS tape as well, and make some purses. We had a vinyl record craft post a few weeks ago, but here are some additional vinyl record crafting ideas. You can make clocks from them, regular or Dali-style. Vinyl records can be used to make books or journals, tote bags or purses, or earrings. They can also be used to make silhouette cutouts, serve as a canvas for paintings, or made into wall art. And what a relief, huh? You thought you’d have to smuggle those New Kids on the Block or K-Tel compilation albums to the nearest thrift store in the dead of the night.

Because the landfills out there are frightful, but crafting is so delightful

orange swan — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 10:59:56 -0800

Christmas is coming, but while the goose may be getting fat, your wallet is not. And you’re dreaming of a green Christmas. How, you ask, can one decorate a home economically and with consideration for the environment? This depends on what you’ve got sitting around the house already. Do you have lots of old Christmas cards that always seemed too pretty to throw away? Use them to make a star or two, tree ornaments, angels, gift boxes, a basket, a wreath or a small tree. If you’ve been making merry with the aid of copious amounts of alcohol, you can use the empty bottles or cans to make a tree. Aluminum cans could be used to make angels; a wine bottle can make a small tree; an old pop bottle can become a star. A plastic tub from the kitchen and a Christmas-themed paper napkin can become a flower pot. Your old CDs can be used to make tree ornaments or a wreath. If you’ve been going broke buying baby food, use the jars to make a centrepiece. If you’re a starving student and have spent your all on textbooks, use them to make a tree. Old light bulbs can be used to create new ornaments, like these snowmen, this reindeer or this Grinch, and old tin cans make cute snowmen or Santa jars. Scratched Christmas ornaments can be made useable again with crocheted covers. You can also recycle old clothing to make ornaments for the tree, or Christmas stockings for everyone in your household. And now you can only hope that Santa will consider that being a good crafter is tantamount to having been good.;-)

Nicotine-free crafts: crafting with cigarette and cigar packaging

orange swan — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 09:37:50 -0800

If you've quit smoking and you're trying to get through the early withdrawal symptoms without gaining 20 pounds, one coping strategy is to get busy crafting. Sure, you say, you've made naughty figurines out of your cigarette packages in bored moments before, but now if you're going to craft you want to make something that celebrates your fantastic self-discipline and can serve as a worthy memorial to your renounced habit. If that's how you feel, check out these links. If you were a cigarette smoker, you can make a cigarette wrapper purse or two, gift tags or cards, a flash diffuser for your camera, or a model Lamborghini. Or you might launch into the creation of a photographic series like artist Chris Jordan. If cigars were more your thing, you can also use them to make some truly lovely purses (here's how). The boxes can be découpaged, collaged, and decorated to make boxes for jewelry or what have you. If you were a really heavy and brand-faithful smoker, you can make a chest of drawers. Then perhaps you should make a shrine for yourself. Cigar boxes also lend themselves to making good planters, mini memo boards, or stationery sets. If you think you'd like to take up a musical instrument once you've finished making things out of all your old cigar boxes, why not make your own guitar, fiddle, kalimba, or cigar box amp. You can also make a cigar box battery for a tube radio. And now that you're looking at what you have wrought, thank you for crafting and recycling and for not smoking.

Your motorcycle gang days may be over, but thanks to crafting your leather jacket can rock on.

orange swan — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 08:37:10 -0800

Got some old leather articles lying around that have become dated, worn, or too small? Well, happy days are here again for your old leather goods, because here are some ideas on how to make old leather items into new items you can use. For starters, what have you got to reinvent? An old coat? You can make it into a chair cover, a painted leather purse, a satchel, or a book or notebook cover. Skirts can be turned into nice purses or a wallet. Leather pants can be turned into a tricorn hat. A leather boot can become a purse. You might salvage an old compartment from an old purse to put into a new one. If you've got some old belts, they can become a rug, a picture frame, or a wrist cuff. You might also decorate that old belt and go on wearing it, and if you like doing that, you can move on to learning leather tooling, which is quite the art form and can be used to decorate any kind of leather item if the leather itself is suitable. If your item is very worn and you've got only a small amount of salvageable leather, you might make a leather bookmark, doll shoes or clothes, a leather cuff, or a business card case. However, if you've got old leather bondage equipment you'd like to repurpose, you are so on your own when it comes to finding links for that.

Yes we can can craft.

orange swan — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 20:21:58 -0800

As much as you may enjoy using your discarded tin cans to have top secret conversations make yourself taller, you'd like to know if there's anything creative to do with tin cans. Here are some ideas to get you started. Tin cans are useful when you want to get organized, and can be decorated to match the wallpaper, or look like a robot. They make good pincushions. Or bed frames. Cans can be used as electrical outlet or light switch plates, or as the light fixtures themselves. You can use them as an alternative to wallpaper, or, depending on your climate and how much soup you eat, build with them. They can be used to grow a wall garden, or herbs. If you're a musical type, you could use them to make an amp, a banjo, a thumb piano, or bongos. If art is more your bag, perhaps you'd like to make a Pac-Man or bird sculpture, or check out David Wasserman's work, or the Orlando Forge Metal Studio's tin can art gallery or this gallery for some inspiration. Just don't get too carried away, like Marge.

The "Near Future Technopop Unit"

Unicorn on the cob — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 21:03:25 -0800

Perfume, a three-girl Japanese technopop sensation formed in 2001 now consisting of Nocchi, Kashikuya and A~chan, is about to release their ninth single, "Dream Fighter". Perfume's July 2008 single "Love the World" was the first technopop song ever to debut at #1 on the Oricon sales chart. The previous highest debut for techno was Yellow Magic Orchestra's "Kimi ni, Munekyun" 25 years ago in 1983. (original article citing #1 record translated via Google translator) You may know them for their Japanese recycling campaign ads or annoyingly catchy single version of the song (complete with dance routine), "Polyrhythm".

Got a crafting urge all bottled up?

orange swan — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 21:20:52 -0800

Even though you recycle the plastic you discard, you sometimes feel guilty about how much you throw out and worry about where it's going. Would you like to be a little more hands on and proactive and recycle some of your plastics yourself? If so, I've got some ideas for you. Do those used plastic gift cards always seem too pretty to just throw away? You can make guitar picks or jewelry from them. You can make beads out of plastic and make even more jewelry. If you'd like to make some home furnishing and décor items, you can make lamps from milk jugs or water bottles. If you'd prefer a pendant light, that's an option too. If you've got the ceiling height and live near an ocean, you can make a “Tide Chandelier” like artist Stuart Haygarth, who made this chandelier from mostly plastic objects he found on the beach. If you've been ordering in a lot lately, you might make a chandelier like this one out of your plastic spoons. You could also make some interesting candlesticks and containers from plastic bottles, or a dish out of plastic bottles and aluminum cans. If you want extra green points, you could grow your own food in this self-watering plastic bottle planter. Or you could just make some plastic flowers that don't need watering at all. Your children might enjoy making butterflies or a bottle bank, making and racing “robottles”, or some of the plastic bottle top games and crafts listed on ehow. If you like to fish perhaps you could use a minnow bottle. More ideas for recycling plastic containers can be found here, and you can also check out this list of 12 practical ways to recycle plastic lids. If you're more of an artist than a crafter, you could take your cue from Heath Nash's plastic bottle designs or sculptures, or Aurora Robson's gallery of plastic bottle sculptures, or Kosuke Tsumura's “Bottle Armor” or “Bustle Style” works. And whatever recycled plastic craft or art project you undertake, rest assured that you're not at all likely to run out of supplies.

These shoes are ripe for crafting

orange swan — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:41:02 -0800

While you may not be the shoe hoarder some people are, you have shoes in your closet you never wear and you'd like to know what to do with them. Are they just boring? In that case you could just experiment with new ways to lace them, or find a way to make them light up when you walk into a room. Or you could draw on the shoes with markers or sharpies. You could also paint them, going with the theme of your choice: Art Nouveau, Picasso, Day of the Dead, or any of the ideas here. You could cut motifs from fabric and glue them on to your lace-ups, cover your flats with new fabric, bling up a pair of strappy shoes with glitter, or embellish your flip-flops with some yarn. Is the old upper worn out? Knit or crochet a new one. Want to get where you're going faster? Make custom roller skates, or modify your bicycle. Do your shoes hurt your feet? Put them on your face instead as a wrestling mask, or turn them into an iPod case. Your shoes could also become a birdhouse, a planter, a centrepiece, or an integral part of a coat rack, bookends or leg lamp. If you're really not up to crafting, here are 11 non-crafty ways to recycle old shoes. But what fun is that?!?

Because bra burning is so passé

orange swan — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 08:38:47 -0800

Got a stack of bras you don't know what to do with? Charities will accept secondhand bras in good condition, but if you're in the mood to be creative there are bra crafting ideas on the net. You could make a bra wristlet, and then make a sleep mask out of the rest of the bra fabric, earrings out of the hardware, and a toy out of inserts. You could make a lavender sachet out of a bra and use it to perfume your lingerie drawer. One seemingly popular idea is to make a cute and feminine evening bag or, as one woman who wears a 36F quipped in a comment, luggage. If you're an especially sassy member of the Red Hat Society, you could make a purse that matches your hat. Some people even make hats out of the bras, though perhaps not every woman would care to so obviously wear a bra on her head. If you're a breast cancer survivor and want to avoid buying expensive and uncomfortably heavy prosthetics, you could knit yourself a pair of tits and go right on wearing your favourite bras. You could also make an art installation: a 5' bra ball. Here's a list of 28 things to do with old bras. And yes, I realize this post will make many of the men of MeFi want to get a lot of puns/juvenile comments off their chests, but titter away. You're probably just jealous you can't make such cool crafts out of your jock straps.