Published on Friday, 29 August 2008 15:01 | | 
Tights, tapes, towels ... What happens if there isn't a suitable recycling bin for your waste? Lucy Siegle thinks laterally
As a nation we're getting better at recycling the easy things, but what about the anomalies? While kerbside collection schemes seem to be getting simpler, if not necessarily more uniform, there is a host of every day objects missing a virtuous resting place. This column is dedicated to the recyclables that fall - rather literally - outside the box.
One reader, Mary, emailed to ask what she could do with a set of keys that have a boomerang quality: 'I put them in my recycling box and nobody takes them. Sometimes they post them back through my letterbox, assuming I've dropped them.' I suggest finding a mixed-metals recycling bin (enter your postcode on recyclenow.com) or send them to keysforkindness.com, which recycles keys and gives the money to charity.
Expect to see an alarming (sorry) increase in abandoned electrical alarm clocks. Scuppered by the rise of the mobile phone with its alarm function, they are officially Weee (Waste electronic and electrical equipment) and need to be taken off to the civic amenity point for disassembly. East Anglia-based wombling.org.uk accepts small electricals, which they refurbish and sell on or disassemble for recycling.
One of the most frequent Ethical Living questions concerns VHS tapes. There is a snag: while the plastic casing can be recycled, the tape cannot. Keymood (keymood.co.uk), formerly The ReCycling People, will recycle VHS tapes but there is a charge to cover the landfill cost: £15 for up to 50 pieces, £20 for 50-140; DVD and CD recycling is free.
As summer approaches you suddenly notice thousands of pairs of tights clogging up your sock drawer. There are very few options, given that you can't really repair non pure-wool tights. Tightsplease (tightsplease.co.uk) collects old and laddered tights for women suffering from fistula in Ethiopia. Send to Ethiopia Tights Appeal, Tightsplease, 2nd Floor Albion Court, 18-20 Frederick Street, Hockley, Birmingham B1 3HE.
The nation's airing cupboards are apparently stuffed full of threadbare bath towels and redundant sheets. My stance on any type of textile is that it should be reused as much as humanly possible. We tend to treat cotton as a cheap commodity. Given its environmental and social impact, this doesn't add up. We are still worlds away from reclaiming fibres on a big scale, but LM Barry (lmb.co.uk) takes household textiles as well as clothes. Most sheets and towels will end up being 'ragged' - torn up as strips for recycling as industrial wiping rags. Not a glamorous end, granted, but better than throwing in the recycling towel and despatching it to landfill.
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Lucy Siegle is the author of Green Living in the Urban Jungle and co-author of A Good Life.
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