I did not know until I read it somewhere that recycling companies manage to salvage a huge 70% of waste from garbage skip hire. Unless you would like to work for such a company and help the eco-system, you will find that you are able to recycle the vast majority of your household waste yourself and send less junk off to the garbage dumps and skip-hire waste management.

The world is becoming overwhelmed by plastic - it washes up on the beaches, it lies around in garbage dumps for ever and very little of it biodegrades even after many years. Mothers, think about using toweling diapers instead of disposable ones. There are many new designs on the market which could mean that instead of using hundreds of diapers over a period of time, you will only need a few. These come with inner linings which are completely washable. Think of the huge amount of saving this will result in! Take those dollars and put them into an account for yourself or your baby to enjoy later or put it to better use that diapers which clog up our sensitive eco-system.

Indulge yourself by spending a relaxing time on the world-wide web finding ways in which you can recycle those soft and hard plastic containers into useful products. For example, a milk bottle can easily be altered into a scoop for a child's sandpit. You can save yourself an enormous amount of money on purchasing toys for toddlers. Make watering cans out of plastic and toys for the bath or an imaginary shop. You are not only stimulating your child's imagination but once again, saving money in a stressed economy.

Make a compost heap in a corner of the garden and add earthworms to eat away at your wasted vegetable and garden matter and produce mulch for your plants, or produce/purchase an earthworm farm instead. Grow your own plants. Don't throw away the eyes of potatoes and the tops of carrots - re-grow them!! While they are starting to sprout, they make a show of attractive greenery on your kitchen windowsill before you re-pot them into your vegetable garden.

Old hand-knitted sweaters can be unpicked, the wool tied into skeins, washed and re-used for knitting new garments. Frayed and worn-out clothing make wonderful rags for use in the kitchen or for your car. Sheets that have worn thin with age make great bandages once torn into strips and rolled up ready for use in the first-aid box.

Newspaper mixed with wallpaper glue makes wonderful paper pulp. Place the paper pulp around a wire frame in the shape of a bird or fish or whatever suits your fancy and let it dry. Smooth your creations over with crack-filler and paint them with left-over paint to sell for pin money or to raise money for charities. Keep boxes and cartons neatly opened and packed according to size in the top of your garage. The next time you need a box for mailing use or for moving, you will know exactly where to find it.

Collect office waste. Make bundles off it along with waste-paper and cardboard and sell it to recycling companies yourself or encourage an unemployed person to do this instead. They can also collect soft-drink soda aluminum cans and sell them back to factories as well. Office waste paper without confidential information printed on one side can be collected and given to nursery schools for use in painting, drawing or writing on the back side of the paper. Nursery schools can never get enough of the stuff and will be extremely grateful for your services.

The beauty of recycling and avoiding the tip is that not only do you enhance your environment ecologically but you will also find yourself spending less pennies.