New uses for 3.5 floppies

July 6, 2007 1:00 PM

Lots and lots (and lots and lots) of 3.5" disks. Don't want to just trash them. Any ideas (possibly crafty) on recycling them?

Our office is empty this holiday week, and those of us left on the skeleton crew have been putting a hurt on the packed-to-the-ceiling storage room. We came across boxes of archived (and no longer needed) 3.5" floppies... probably 800 to 1000 of them. We don't want to throw them out. At the very least, we'd like to recycle them (if possible). Even better, any suggestions for a crafty re-use for these technological microsaurs?

posted by gyrom to computers & internet (12 comments total)

They make surprisingly excellent cases for 3" CDs.
posted by ktrey at 1:03 PM on July 6, 2007

Tote bag, or the old 101 Uses for AOL Disks.
posted by djb at 1:05 PM on July 6, 2007

Lots of ideas yesterday. I liked this one.
posted by MtDewd at 1:06 PM on July 6, 2007

Thanks for the pointer MtDewd... I searched for floppies but forgot all about Zips.
posted by gyrom at 1:09 PM on July 6, 2007

My roommate and I were talking the other day about making a suit of nerd-armor out of 5 1/4" disks, with 3.5"s as plating.

Probably not what you want, but still crafty.
posted by sunshinesky at 1:26 PM on July 6, 2007 [2 favorites]

wall hanging or mosaic tapestry
posted by nihlton at 1:39 PM on July 6, 2007

I think recycling is the best idea. Another possibility is to donate them to a computer museum if they are brand new. If you keep them around, they can help you turn back time when you feel nostalgic for things old. For example, if someday you decide to buy one of those classic computers of the 90s era and you decided to write a book within Word Perfect 5.1--you'll need those diskettes to get the files out out of the PC!
posted by iheartcanada at 2:09 PM on July 6, 2007

Recycling, not really. But the Nerd Armor is a great idea.
posted by theora55 at 3:15 PM on July 6, 2007

I like the pencil holder shown here.

If you had enough different colors it would be cool to make a mosaic out of them, like those post-it ones. I don't know if your office would be hep to that as a decor option, though.
posted by O9scar at 8:04 PM on July 6, 2007

Here's another idea
posted by slowstarter at 9:24 PM on July 6, 2007

Some excellent ideas out there. We do have two shades of blue, three grays and black. There could be enough to a decent mosaic piece. With the right image and some photoshop work, we can turn out a nice gift for marketing to give to IT.

Thanks for the suggestions, all.
posted by gyrom at 5:31 AM on July 7, 2007

How to make a starship Enterprise out of an old floppy disk, if you're a trekkie.
posted by cerbous at 4:05 PM on July 8, 2007