What do people do with crisp packets?

What indeed?

Well, throw them away mostly. Almost no crisp packets are currently recyclable in the UK so what are you, obviously a keen recycler and champion of the environment, going to do to salve your conscience? Perhaps you might make your own Christmas decorations? It may take you a while so better start now.

Or what about weaving a bag? There was a link to the instructions on the same page as the Christmas decoration suggestion but sadly it no longer works. But the photograph I have borrowed from that page shows the bags are very pretty. There's probably another place to find instructions; I expect I didn't look hard enough.

Of course handbag designer Anya Hindmarsh designed a bag to look like a crisp packet. Perhaps these bags are a trifle more expensive than a recycled crisp packet bag would be (18ct gold anybody?) and somewhat swankier than your average Lay's or Walkers packet they are rather fun. I want one! I'm going to borrow one of her images.

And what about making a dress or perhaps it is a wearable work of art? Here's a student called Rebekah modelling the dress she made from dozens of packets. I wonder how sturdy this is? From experience I know that crispy snack packets split very easily. I would have thought she might be better off printing the packet designs onto cloth; but then she would not have won an award for sustainable design.

As I said, crisp packets split very easily but I also wonder about washing them. They are usually so very greasy and I think you might get fed up with your project before you had produced anything clean and shiny enough to work with. So this dress may have won an award for sustainable design but I wonder how much precious water was used in its making?

It seems that one man from Hull grills (grills! you'd think a crisp packet would catch fire under a grill) empty packets and turns them into balls, which he will then makes into a work of art. Hull is the UK City of Culture this year and Gary Key has decided that's the way  he wants to join in. History has yet to relate whether or not Hull City Council will consider his offering to be art or not.

If you can't bring yourself to embark on any of these exciting, though possibly arduous projects, what about folding your empty packet into the smallest tidiest piece of rubbish possible? Here are some instructions to help you out.