gifts in the mail, recycling & a dilemna

Today I have been thinking about the way we consume so much "stuff".

Some of it gives us great pleaure:  the pic on the left shows the lovely parcel I received from Jennie. http://jennie61.blogspot.com/

These little treasures will form part of the wall hanging I am doing with Carole Burangar.
http://kiwicarole.blogspot.com/
The next pic is of some of the materials I will use for the wall hanging.  I am pleased to know that much of what I shall be using will be recycled materials and that everything I need is already in my stash.

T

 Carole suggested we use old linen and tea dye it.  However I have some doileys I have dyed for just such a project.  I also have some old lace hankies which will fit the bill perfectly.

Some of these look too good to use but they are stained or torn so it seems like a good way of using them up.





Now to the dilemna.

We want to buy a new television with access to the internet etc.  We have just 2 televisions in our house: one in the lounge/living room and one downstairs in the work room/guest area.  The one upstairs is 10 years old and the one downstairs was passed on to us by our eldest daughter.
Both of these sets work.  They are good.  We do however want a larger and more modern set.


What do we do with the one set we want to replace? If we take it to the local waste disposal centre it will be shipped off by some company: probably to some third world country where it will be pulled apart by some poor people without any care for their welfare.


The charity shops will not accept old tvs.


What to do?

help needed please

I have a couple of questions which I am sure someone here will be able to answer.

Problem No 1.  I have bought some "vintage" mens handkerchiefs which are still in the box.  They are made of swiss cotton and unfortunately they have been kept in place in their box with sticky tape.  Over the years the tape and glue have deteriorated and now there are nasty yellow marks that I would like to remove.  Any help would be most welcome.


Problem No 2. This is more of a general question.  I have a hot glue gun which I have all kinds of difficulty with.  Should I just throw it in the bin or can it be useful.  It seems to take forever to heat up but once it does the glue seeps even when I don't want it too and it is really stringy (like cheese on pizza) and I end up in a terrible mess.
If it is a lost cause can I have some suggestions regarding the use of adhesives/glues.  They are my most problematic materials but I do find they have their uses.