Reusing commonly tossed items is not only a great way to save on cash, it’s a great way to be green.

Reuse can help reduce waste disposal and handling costs, because it avoids the costs of recycling, municipal composting, land filling, and combustion. The Environmental Protection Agency also officially gives reuse the thumbs up.

Kim Carlson, founder of Earth Smart Consumer, listed her favorite ways to breathe new into the old. We’d love to hear of any other ingenious ways to turn an unloved item into something cherished–feel free to comment to share your ideas!

Tissue box and baby wipe containers can be used to store your plastic bags. Fold them neatly so they pop out like tissue normally would when you remove them.

Turn old photos ready to be tossed out into postcards.

Glass jars can be used to organize you mom repair supplies – screws, nails, picture hangers.

Aluminum cans can turn your backyard into put-put central for kiddies. Strip the cans of paper and drill holes in the sides and bottom. Dig holes to fit cans and instantly you have your own put-put course.

Old popsicle sticks can be used to label garden plants.

Crayon nubs can be melted together to make a cool multi-colored crayon.

Use carpet remnants as doormats.

Use old candle nubs as fire starters.

Save old buttons and pop tops to make jewelry or toy bots for the kids.

Whether youre trying to save or be more eco-friendly, giving your items a second-life is one way to help reduce pollution, including greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

Photo: Laineys Repertoire Flickr Creative Commons

Friday (June 5) marked the 37th annual World Environment Day, a day originally established by the UN General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. This years theme was “Your Planet Needs You–UNite to Combat Climate Change,” and emphasized the urgency for nations to unite.

To commemorate the event in Los Angeles, Environment Furniture (www.environment-furniture.com) and Goodwill Industries (www.goodwill.org) partnered to launch the Exchange for Change Project (EFC). With recycling as a core business principle for both companies, the project encourages consumers to donate their old sofa to Goodwill and in return receive a 25% discount on a new, sustainable Environment sofa made with reclaimed canvas or natural linen. Normal tax-deductions also apply.

Upon its success in Los Angeles, the EFC project may roll out nationwide in the near future. Find out more at Environment Furniture, 8126 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90048. Tel: 323-782-0296, Mon-Sat 10-7; Sun 11-6.

How can I recycle my old mattress if the place I buy a new one from doesnt take it? What do mattress companies do with old mattresses when they do take them? Do they recycle any of the material? – J. Belli, Bridgeport, CT, USA

A typical mattress is a 23 cubic foot assembly of steel, wood, cotton and polyurethane foam. Given this wide range of materials, mattresses have typically been difficult to recycle-and still most municipal recycling facilities wont offer to do it for you. But along with increasing public concerns about the environment-and a greater desire to recycle everything we can-has come a handful of private companies and nonprofit groups that want to make sure your old bed doesnt end up in a landfill.

In the United States, the Lane County, Oregon chapter of the charity St. Vincent de Paul Society, for example, has spearheaded one of the nations most successful mattress recycling initiatives via its DR3 (“Divert, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”) program. “Keeping [mattresses] out of landfills is a matter of efficiently recycling them so their core materials can be reincarnated into any number of new products,” reports the group, which opened a large mattress recycling center in Oakland, California in 2001. (Why hundreds of miles away in Oakland? To “go where the mattresses are,” says Chance Fitzpatrick of the group.) The facility has been processing upwards of 300 mattresses and box springs per week ever since.

During the recycling process, each mattress or box spring is pushed onto a conveyor belt, where specially designed saws cut away soft materials on the top and bottom, separating the polyurethane foam and cotton fiber from the framework. The metal pieces are magnetically removed, and the remaining fiber materials are then shredded and baled. The whole process takes one worker just three to four minutes per mattress.

On a slow day, the DR3 facility recycles some 1,500 pounds of polyurethane foam, which totals a half million or more pounds over the course of a year. “A well-oiled recycling factory can reuse 90 percent of the mattress,” reports Josh Peterson of Discoverys Planet Green website. “The cotton and cloth get turned into clothes. The springs and the foam get recycled, and the wood gets turned into chips.”

While the DR3 facility only takes mattresses from a small group of waste haulers and individuals around the San Francisco Bay Area, other mattress recyclers are popping up around the U.S. and beyond. Some examples include Nine Lives Mattress Recycling in Pamplico, South Carolina; Conigliaro Industries in Framingham, Massachusetts; MattCanada in Montreal, QuĂ

They say one good deed leads to another. The Dove Project is a series of questions, passed on, by each interviewee, to the person they believe is doing their part to ensure a greener, healthier future, through action and inspiration. Join us as we share earth-loving information courtesy of those who have taken it upon themselves to believe, through action and leading by example, that one person can truly make a difference. Tree by Nick Radford

Name: Patti Penn
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Profession: Reiki Master
Website: www.reiki-eft.com

THE GREEN DOVE: Who passed The Dove Project on to you?

PATTI PENN: Shannon Dunn is a Reiki student of mine. She inspires me as she has become the change she wants to see in the world by leading by example and setting her own standards.

TGD: What is your (health/wellbeing/green) mission?

PP: My well-being mission is to keep people being the best version of themselves through conscious action in every moment. Rather than “fix-ing” people; as if they were all broken I believe everyone needs to be empowered to trust themselves consciously choose right action for themselves with no monitoring or trying and reflect that into the world but start with yourself.

TGD: What (health/wellbeing/green) action, big or small, do you take every day and why?

PP: I recycle, I buy from the farmers market as fresh means very little wastage, I choose conscious retailers who support projects I am invested in, my dog and I drive a Vespa and I turn off the water when I am brushing my teeth to conserve water as we are in California. I only turn it back on to rinse my brush….:))

TGD: What, in your opinion, are the most helpful things the average person can do to make a positive impact on the planet?

PP: To be aware of their own actions and choose the right action how ever little it is for them. I feel in Los Angeles that the fuel consumption has dropped with more and more people being aware of the fossil fuel being burnt and turning to more fuel efficient cars. I personally loved when the fuel prices became higher as it heightened awareness as carpooling became common and a sense of community was born.

TGD: What books and/or websites should everyone should know about and why?

PP: Don Tolman (www.dontolmaninternational.com) to learn about natural benefits of food, Ted.com to understand our mind, community and inspiration ideas worth spreading, www.realrawlive.com for the best detox in LA and amazing raw juices. Books: The Way of the Peaceful Warrior; and Eat, Pray, Love.

TGD: How can just one person make a difference?

PP: By leading by example. Its contagious to humans. A story I always tell my Reiki students is of a little girl on the beach. She has been there for hours; as all these starfish have washed up on the shore. One by one she picks up the star fish and throws it back into the ocean … then she picks up another starfish and throws it back into the ocean, another starfish and throws it back into the ocean, another starfish and throws it back into the ocean … over and over again.

A man walking his dog watches the little girl as he comes along the beach; as he gets nearer to the little girl, he tells her that they are all dying in the sun and she is never going to make a difference. As she pick up a starfish; looks at the man and tells him “maybe so, but I made a difference to this one” she bends down and picks up another starfish and says “and I made a difference to this one”. The man joins the little girl picking and throwing starfish back into the ocean as others join in from along the beach.

TGD: Your biggest hope for the worlds future?

PP: That we consume only what we need and give back more…

TGD: Who are you asking to join The Dove Project and why?

PP: Tricia Mazure because she works with the soil and the land. I feel she would have some amazing and thoughtful answers.

TGD: What one question would you most like to have Tricia answer?

PP: Why does she care so much?
________________________________
Log into The Dove Project on May 30 to meet Tricia Mazure

Who said print is dead? Greenwithenvy.com is recycling and making a statement with Obama newspaper totes.

The authentic newspapers are recycled from the mills of the November 5, 2008 an Inaugural Day papers from the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post papers. Show your American spirit and be eco friendly at the same time. Prices range from $43 to $85.00 depending on size and paper.