A: Last week, you will remember, I tried to spice up my wardrobe with a packet of dye. Since it turned out to be neither eco-friendly nor sartorially advisable, here is a better way of ending up with fresh material. My favourite swap shop is whatsmineisyours.com, set up Judy Berger, a former Selfridges personal shopper. To get your mitts on items featured on its site, you have to register. Then you’re put in touch with the person who owns the clothing. You offer an item of your own in return or you give a price.

If it’s accepted, the item is sent to you. Berger is on hand to iron out dodgy dealings, so don’t try to pass off last year’s M&S jacket as Armani. Registering and putting in offers is free, but you pay £2.50 a time to post your clothes on the site (£9.99 a month for limitless postings). As it specialises in designer and vintage clothes, I’d be ashamed to offer my grotty gear here. The community website gumtree.com is a better fit; no offence intended to its colourful “swap it” section.

Q: If I recycle my computer, is there a security risk in case it retains personal data?

A: You’re right, it’s important to be savvy as well as green. If you suspect that you’re not, you may wish to know that hitting the delete button does not spell end of story for sensitive material; it simply hides it from you. It lurks somewhere in your computer, so the hard drive must be overwritten (wiped clean) for peace of mind. Since there’s an alarming trade in illegally obtained personal information, my advice would be to donate your computer to a registered, well-established recycling charity, such as Computer Aid International (computeraid.org) or Computers for Charities (computersforcharities.co.uk).

The latter assumes legal liability for donated equipment and it can furnish you with a certificate to say that all data has been removed, if you so wish. Computer Aid International also uses data- wiping software to guarantee that your donation is secure. Should you wish to give to a local equivalent (find your nearest on recyclenow.com) and you’re not confident of its security policy, or sell on eBay, and certainly if you donate online, install your own overwriting program, such as Drive Washer (you can buy it on Amazon).

Sadly, among all those free-cyclers merrily swapping their stuff on freecycle.org, there’s probably one or two in it for the wrong reasons. Kind-hearted chums of the Earth are a soft target.

Q: Will my wormery survive the winter outdoors?

A: It’s not a matter of life and death (how do you think wild worms survive?) but more of getting through the season’s sprout peelings. While cold weather won’t kill worms, they work best in warm weather, ideally between 13C-20C, according to the wormery company wigglywigglers.co.uk.

It suggests bringing the bin indoors during particularly cold spells if you have an outhouse or utilities room. Or insulate your bin. I recently found a box of bubble-wrap on my desk. Stuff like this often, ahem, worms its way over from colleagues who are certain that I hold the future for all office junk. In this case, I do. It’s the ideal material for tucking under a wormery lid. Friends of the Earth says I could also use a piece of old carpet or clothing. Its Tip of the Day e-mail service, which drops eco-information into my inbox every day, told me so. To subscribe, go to foe.co.uk/living/tips.

Extra layers, says urbancomposting.com, will also stop the whole thing freezing up. It says not to despair if a block of iced worm greets your daily trip to the bin. Worms survive this trauma, thaw out and carry on composting. Hardy and dependable, these little creatures. And a lot better at coping with the cold than us.

Blogwatch: Packaging

A few weeks ago, when the Environment Minister Ben Bradshaw met supermarket retailers to discuss unnecessary packaging, I asked for your worst offenders. To get you in the mood, I mentioned my own: Jaffa cakes and squeezy Marmite bottles.

Gareth Kane posted on WHSmith’s own-brand glue-stick: “Despite being self-contained, it comes in a blister-pack of plastic and card.” After writing to the shop referring to its environmental policy that states that it will minimise packaging wherever possible, he was told: “Sometimes it is necessary to have more packaging to display Health and Safety information.” Using a Prittstick, after all, is a risky business.

Richard Heath, meanwhile, has it in for Penguin biscuits, given that there are several layers of film before you get to the chocolate.

On the same theme, a word of warning from Anne Naythan, who e-mailed about Christmas chocolate selection packs: “It’s the same story as Easter eggs; more plastic than chocolate; not really in the spirit of goodwill.”

The message? Consumers don’t like pointless packaging.