Accidentally I discovered cats love batting around small balls made from scraps of alumin[i]um foil. [I suppose it's well known.]

Making these and bagging them, would be a good activity for a sheltered workshop I have helped occasionally with similar ideas.

The halfbaked bit is that I don't know which industries generate enough scrap foil to keep a team busy continuously.

The Materials Exchange News didn't help and I hate the small print columns in the phone books.

Any info would be welcome.
-- rayfo, Jun 29 2001

My junior cat particularly enjoys the crumpled-up foil off the top of a Pringles tube.
You could use foil that a roast had been wrapped in.
-- angel, Jun 29 2001


try the aluminium foil industry, or you could rely on earth-conscious enviro-types to make regular donations, since they're going to put the scraps into the recycling bin anyway.
-- mihali, Jun 29 2001


For this kind of hands-on re-use the source-material has to be clean, allergy-free and in steady-flow supply.

These requirements rule out most if not all of the recycle-bin stuff.

In fact certain aspects of the giant "waste" industry have hindered not helped, the tiny sheltered workshops movement.

Even the otherwise commendable "Zero Waste" movement is, by definition, reducing the amount and variety of materials suitable for use by the workshops.

And there's more "both and" stuff.

The immense success of the Paralympics is involving disabled people in exciting year-round activity - thus taking both sponsor-funding and staff away from the non-sexy workshops.

I know I'm rubbishing my own posting, but I didn't think it through when I started did I?
-- rayfo, Jun 29 2001


i quite like fly tips and other such places which other people find horrible,because they are sometimes/often a good source of materials. find a broken caravan
-- technobadger, Jun 29 2001


Not as good as wrapping your head in the stuff and playing Robotman. But good.
-- The Military, Jun 30 2001


Or as good as wrapping your entire self in it and playing Cat Toy. But passable.
-- Monkfish, Jun 30 2001


rayfo: Here in the paunch of Oregon a bunch of hippies started taking in junk--especially old windows, boards, doors, bicycle parts, sinks--that thrift stores generally don't handle, and selling it cheaply. It's great for certain kinds of tinkering.

(Doesn't do much for aluminum-foil cat toys, but I wish I could take you through the place. Serious stuff for the underfunded inventor.)
-- Dog Ed, Jun 30 2001


What happens if the kitty eats a bit of the foil? Surely the sharp edges cant be healthy.
-- Skyloo, Mar 06 2002


Ever chewed on tinfoil? Not fun. Cats would not want to chew on it long enough to make any pieces come loose...
-- StarChaser, Mar 08 2002



random, halfbakery