The Royal Mail is under pressure to stop its posties from dropping red rubber bands onto the ground. But are there any uses that could be found for the ubiquitous bands to spare them the effort?
1. Use them as cheap Kabbalah wrist bands. Madonna wears one and buying them from the Kabbalah Centre costs $26 for enough red string to make seven bands.
Red Kabbalah wristbands cost money. Red rubber bands are free.
They say: "The Red String protects us from the influences of the Evil Eye. Evil Eye is a very powerful negative force. It refers to the unfriendly stare and unkind glances we sometimes get from people around us."
2. Consider them a collector's item. There is a fad among scooter-riding children to collect the bands by putting them over the T-bar and dropping them down the central column. Encourage your child to collect the most.
Children like to collect the bands and put them on their scooters
3. Use them to build a giant red rubber band monument on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square to either of the London inventors credited with creating the rubber band. The invention is variously attributed to Thomas Hancock or Stephen Perry.
4. Fire them in the air to indicate support at a Labour or Republican party rally.
5. Consider the bending down and the picking up of the bands as exercise. It shouldn't be too hard to keep up a regular rhythm as the red bands were chosen by the Royal Mail so they were easy to spot.
6. Use them to mark Chinese new year. Red is considered lucky by many in China and is worn during festivities. It's a mere 314 days until the next festivities.
7. Make a red rubber band ball. This is similar to a manila rubber band ball. But red. Like a cricket ball.
If you are a patient/obsessive person you might consider this option
8. Use them to enrage bulls. Ignore those people who think that bulls are colour blind and therefore just as likely to be annoyed by a manila coloured band. Coin a new simile - "like a red rubber band to a bull".
9. Give your child's Barbie or Barbie-style doll a fetching red belt, or a Rambo-style red headband for that matter.
10. Gather them and sell them back to the Royal Mail.