So THIS is why they invented the internet?

There's this tree nursery in Ireland, see, and they're all environmentally friendly and the like so when they send out stuff with paperclips, they ask if the recipient would be kind enough to return the paperclips next time they're corresponding. One of their more devious colleagues decided to have some fun with this organisation, so posted a plea on the interweb for people from all round the world to send them paperclips. A month on, there has been a veritable deluge of paperclips descend upon the tree nursery people, and they have absolutely no idea what is going on, even though there has been the occasional clue thrown in for good measure.