SiteSeeing: How Can I Recycle This? offers wise ways to deal with your detritus

Want to turn an old satellite dish into a birdbath, convert broken crockery into a mosaic, make unused keys into wind chimes, or transform wooden pallets into a fence or compost bin? How Can I Recycle This? can show you how, perhaps saving you some money during these brutal economic times or allowing your inner bright green to shine through.

The site was founded in April 2006 by Louisa Parry and John Leach, two Leeds, England-based Internet publishers, after they wondered how a plate of pistachio shells destined for the trash could be put to better use. The information on How Can I Recycle This? generally consists only of ideas and lacks the step-by-step text and graphical instructions of Instructables.com, which we recently covered. But the large community of posters on the site often adds quite clever suggestions, such as:
• Making leftover twine into scratching posts for a cat.
• Cutting old tents into kites or winter covers for a car windshields.
• Bringing Christmas trees to zoos to provide tasty treats for elephants.

Visitors to How Can I Recycle This? contribute links to other sites with more detailed project plans, such as these Instructables.com projects to make compost bins or planters from shipping pallets. They also provide links to charities that will accept items. Moreover, the site functions as mini-version of Freecycle, as members themselves often volunteer to accept other posters' unwanted white elephants.

Essential Information: As you get into spring cleaning, use these safe, savvy ways to dispose of general household items, leftover paint, motor oil and car batteries, and consumer electronics.