Sony's Walkman is 30! Now, What to do With That Clunky Old Thing?

1979 saw the release of Pink Floyd's The Wall, the election of the UK's first female Prime Minister, and the nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island. Equally innovative, groundbreaking and explosive, however, was the hottest new technology from Sony—the Walkman, which celebrated its 30th anniversary last week, on July 2.

When the Walkman was first released, it weighed in at 14 ounces and was the size of a small book—titanic compared to today's teensy-weensy MP3 players. But it was the first kind of easily portable personal audio equipment, spawning a headphone revolution as people snapped up the $200 battery-operated cassette player.

Sony sells a Walkman product today, significantly updated from the 1979 model to play MP3s—but not tapes. Still, we're guessing there are plenty of pack rats among you who are still hanging onto your original clunker, whether because you're pulling for it to come back in style or simply because you forgot about it til now. Either way, here are a few suggestions for putting your Walkman back to good use on its 30th birthday.

1. Build a Soap Dish
In only five easy steps, you too can have your very own Walkman-turned-soap dish, according to Instructables.com. Pretty soon everyone will want one. Maybe.

2. Recycle It
Sony's Take Back Recycling Program allows consumers to recycle the company's electronics for free, reducing the amount of waste in the environment as well as minimizing the need for new materials to be extracted from the earth. At 75 waste management centers across the country, you can drop off your old electronics—or mail them in—and feel good about reserving resources and saving energy.

3. Detect Electrosmog
Sneakier than regular smog, electrosmog radiates from wireless technology, possibly causing health side effects (or not) that have made headlines in recent years. Elektor magazine demonstrates how you can take a bit of that devious technology itself (your Walkman, of course) and convert it into an electrosmog radar detector in one simple step.

4. Make it Into an Eight-Track Tape Player
If the Walkman is perhaps too technologically advanced and streamlined for you, Instructables.com offers detailed directions for retrofitting your casstte player with eight-track capabilities.