Eco Balls to Lend Out & Jam Jar Lids

Fancy trying Eco Balls before buying?

So if you've been reading this blog you'll know that I'm a convert to the Ecoballs, although we had a slight blip at the start of this week.  I opened the door to the washing machine and found the nappies mixed with the innards of one of the balls.  One of the joins had worked loose, and out they came.  No disaster as I managed to just scoop them back up, and the washing was still done, but slightly annoying.


I contacted Ethicalsuperstore, where I'd bought them from, and they apologised and sent me another pack.

I haven't heard of this happening to anyone else, so I'm up for continuing with them, but I do now have a couple spare, as they last for 1000 washes.  So rather than squirrel them away for a few years, I thought I'd see if anyone wants to experiment with them, and have the chance to 'try before you buy'.

Jam Jar Lids

So if you live locally, let me know and I'll send them your way for a couple of weeks.

My other revelation recently was on the recycling of jam jar lids.  I lot of jars I reuse for my homemade jam, but there are some that are just unusable due to their size, and I've been frustrated that you can't also recycle their lids in the glass banks.  Locally they've started to advertise that you can leave screw tops on wine bottles now, but they dont't seem to have extended that to jam jars etc yet.

I googled and came up with a revelation from Somerset: 

Can you accept can and jam jar lids? Yes, but because small lids sometimes get stuck in collection vehicles and sorting equipment, it helps if lids can be squashed inside a food can. All can and jam jar lids can be recycled as they are made from steel (test with a magnet to see if sticks), but not screw tops from bottles, which are made from various alloys and are not steel.

And don't forget steel biscuit tins.  (Just remember to not put lids in if they are lined with plastic...life's not that simple of course.)