My household has a drawerful of dead iPods. What’s the best method of dealing with these?

Garbage strike or not, there’s no better time than the present to shrink our waste lines. First things first: downloading music (legally, of course) is generally lighter on the planet than buying largely unrecyclable polycarbonate discs packaged and trucked in from halfway across the continent. 

The only problem with MP3 players is their untimely death.

UK newspaper the Guardian did an exposé on iPods in 06 showing that owners were twice as likely to have had repairs done than owners of other brands. Apple retorts that less than 5 per cent of its products are duds. 

Regardless, Apple has definitely made it a pain in the ass to fix your own iPod when it dies, since even changing your own battery voids the warranty. And sending your iPod to Apple for battery replacement outside of warranty will cost you up to $89 plus a $29.95 shipping and handling fee. 

Early consumers were so pissed off that they sued Apple, and last summer Apple Canada agreed to give a $45 store credit to all those who bought their iPods on or before June 24, 2004, and experienced battery problems.

Whatever your MP3 player of choice, be persistent about getting it fixed before throwing it out. Those little gadgets are loaded with all kinds of dodgy electronic components that you don’t want going in the trash, including a lithium-ion battery. 

Look into iPod repair services near you, like iShopRepair.ca on Bay near Bloor or irepair.ca, which has four Canadian locations, including two in Toronto. Both will revive your iPod at a fraction of a new player’s price and guarantee their work for a year. 

If the pros can’t fix your music player, ask for a guarantee that your gizmo will be recycled locally – something the shops mentioned here do. (You don’t want e-?waste sneakily shipped off to developing countries.) 

If you do end up needing a new MP3 player, buy the extended warranty and make sure the company has a good take-?back program in place. Or go green with a wind-up Eco Media Player (from sites like terrapass.com or realgoods.com). One minute of cranking gives you 40 minutes of music, videos and FM radio. It holds 500 songs or photos and comes with a voice recorder and flashlight.

FYI, while the province isn’t recycling music players at this point, it is recycling TVs and computer-related tech. Punch in your postal code at dowhatyoucan.ca for drop points.

Is there anywhere in Canada where I can send my old bras to be recycled or reused?

Our relationships with bras generally hover behind closed doors, well, unless you’ve got a fancy conical bra and a stage to strut on.

Canada has been a little sheepish on this front. Hell, the UK’s got all sorts of Bra Amnesty events, and one org, Breast Talk, holds a Bra Appeal for homeless and underprivileged women there and overseas. 

Here, Breasts of Canada did start a dead bra day (February 13, in case you didn’t know) when women are encouraged to make public flags and sculptures with their bras to draw attention to breast health. That day, Secrets from Your Sister collects old bras and donates them to the Women’s Own Detox Centre Fund (and gives you 20 per cent off a new bra).

But what about the rest of the year? Since there’s no centralized effort to collect bras year round, I called a few shelters to see how they’d react to pre-loved bra donations. Those that do accept used bras, like the YWCA shelters, Red Door, and Interval House, were clear about one thing: don’t donate it if you wouldn’t wear it yourself. Ditto for Goodwill, which also accepts and sells gently used bras. 

Or check out eHow.com for all kinds of reincarnation suggestions, including sewing it into a tank top for extra support or making an iPod pocket for your sports bra (search “how to reuse old bras”). 

Bottom line: think outside the bra and it won’t end up in a landfill.