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donate them to your local doctors surgery where they will get a few more reads before going off to be turned into pulp.
- Fed up with an old jumper? Why not unpick it and use the wool to create something new? The ultimate in reduce, re-use and recycle!
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RECYCLE

This is the trickier part and in the UK it depends on where you live as to what you realistically can recycle. All local authorities now run some kind of kerbside recycling scheme but what they collects varies around the country. My borough does not take plastic bottles but the neighbouring one where I work does so I wash the bottles and leave them at the recycling point there when I go to work.

You should be able to recycle at least paper, glass and tin cans. Here are some ideas for other items

- Clothing - sell (try your local free ads paper or open an E-bay account) anything you no longer want but that is acceptable for others to wear, or why not give your unwanted stuff to a charity shop instead? If your stuff is so worn out that its not usable then cut off the buttons (you may be glad of them when repairing an item) and put the clothes in a clothing bank found at most recycling centres; these items go to a giant recycling centre which makes packing and cleaning cloths from the fabrics
- If you can't sell on your mobile phone then recycle it (some companies offer a small cash payment for phones that are still working and others simply take the phones to be sent on as a charity donation
- Send old pairs of spectacles to the charity shop too most charities take part in schemes to send unwanted spectacles to people in the third world, those that don't will be able to direct your donation to a charity that can use them
- Compost food waste to pt on your garden you can use vegetable peelings, uneaten food, teabags and eggshells for this. Don't have nay need for compost why not speak to your neighbours and set up a community scheme if one doesn't already exist. You could even contact your local council and suggest a council run scheme if there is not one running already.
- Lots of charities can get money from donated used postage stamps; search online to see who runs these schemes in your area

This is just a small number of ideas that you could do yourself; recycling and reducing waste and usage needn't be a bind, in fact it can become quite fun to think of new ways to reduce what you use or to re-use things. Think careful about what you buy. Do you really need it? Will your life have less meaning if you don't upgrade your cell phone? Hat do you think?

Learn more about this author, Fiona Thompson.
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