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  Reduce rubbish

  Only buy things you really need. Most of what we throw away could be used again. Think twice before you put something in the bin. Try and cut down on the amount you buy new and then throw away.

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  Reuse products

  Use containers again - buy food, drinks and toiletries in returnable containers and ask local shops to stock them. Ask your school or workplace to provide reusable cups, plates, cutlery etc.

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  Recycle more

  Recycle things yourself, and buy recycled products. For information on household waste disposal get in touch with your local authority for recycling schemes in your area - and ask them to improve their recycling services. Why not start your own collection scheme at work or school.

  • it is estimated that ink cartridges take approximately 450 years to decompose
  • ink cartridges can be refilled and laser cartridges remanufactured

Give away or sell

• Charity and nearly new shops, jumble sales and community schemes are good places to donate or sell second hand clothes, toys and furniture. It is also well worth shopping at second hand outlets.

• Old spectacles can be given to high-street opticians to be donated to people around the world.

• Clearing out the attic? Try selling your stuff rather than taking it to the dump. Check out online auction sites like ebay - where you can also bid for anything from second-hand designer clothes to boats.

DIY Repair or adapt

• The best environmental choice is to repair, restore or adapt a product you already have. You may need professional help but it could still be cheaper than something new - half of electrical goods left at dumps work or require only very basic repairs.
• Try reclamation yards, skips, auctions, and second-hand shops when doing DIY. Mend, re-upholster, or restore old furniture before buying new.
• Hire tools or borrow from friends or family for odd jobs, rather than buying your own. Tools for Self Reliance will send your old tools to Africa
• Get a log maker to transform old newspapers into pulp logs, which will burn for up to an hour each.

Cut down packaging

• The amount of plastic packaging waste from UK households is about one million tonnes. Buying fruit and vegetables loose could cut your waste drastically. Take a shopping bag with you and try not to buy drinks in plastic bottles. Write to the companies concerned asking them to change their policies.

• Stop subscribing to magazines that you don't have time to read (and save yourself a few quid) - your local library will probably stock a range of periodicals.

• If each of the UK's 10 million office workers used one fewer staple a day, that could save 120 tonnes of steel a year.

• Reduce junk mail pouring through your door by signing up with the Mailing Preference Service.

• Use your kerbside recycling scheme, if you have one, as provided for under the new Household Waste Recycling Act.
• The fibres from your old clothes can be shredded and rewoven. Try British Red Cross shops.
• Steel plate recovered from cans each year in Western Europe weighs as much as 132 Eiffel Towers but we could do better. Take your cans to one of the 2,000 Save-a-Can banks across Britain
• Polyprint Mailing Films will accept clean polythene wrappers and bags for recycling. Email: info@polyprint.co.uk.
• Reduce junk mail pouring through your door by signing up with the Mailing Preference Service.
• If each of the UK's 10 million office workers used one fewer staple a day, that could save 120 tonnes of steel a year.
• Recycle old curtains or exchange them at The Curtain Exchange..
• Visit the waste pages on Friends of the Earth's award winning website for links to lots of recycling organisations.
• Unwanted CDs? Printers Beacon Press runs a recycling scheme: tel: 01825 768611.