With the economy the way it is and the growing concern about the environment, people are looking for more ways to save money and reduce the amount of trash they throw away. Well, if you look hard enough, there are a ton of things that come into our houses that we can reuse for multiple purposes! Here are 25 that I came up with; what would you add to the list?

Milk jugs (gallon or 1/2 gallon plastic) - Clothespin holder after you cut the top off and hang from your clothesline.

Plastic soda or water bottles - Can be used as kids banks after a nice paint job; a cold pack to be stored in the freezer; with some small holes in it, fill with bird seed and you have a nice bird feeder.

Spaghetti jars - small planters for around the home.

Film canister - Cut a slit in the side and you have a holder for a roll of stamps.

Beer bottle caps - You could pick up some small magnets and some glue at a craft store and make custom refrigerator magnets.

Glass bottles - pick up a light bulb fixture and you have a new lamp; can be used for vases, decorative grass holders.

Old t-shirts - rags for cleaning up around the house; sew a couple of your favorites into a pillow.

Shoe and delivery boxes - storage containers, file boxes, etc - no need to waste money on plastic containers from the container store. Every box in my closet is a reused cardboard one!

Toilet paper roll - extension cord organizer; stuff with paper and some alcohol to make a fire starter.

Sunday comics - wrapping paper. You would never have to buy wrapping paper again if you saved this all year!

An old garden hose - make a soaker hose - poke holes throughout, seal off other end, lay in garden; bucket handle,

Baby jars - votive candle holders; storing spices or seeds.

Toothbrushes - bathroom scrubbers; clothing stain scrubbers.

Mailing tubes - cut several of them to the same length, assemble into a wine rack.

Wine corks - soaked in alcohol, they make a good fire-starter.

CD’s - one-of-a-kind drink coasters (paint, cover with paper, etc).

Altoids tins - These tins are the perfect size to make small emergency kits for camping or to keep in your car; basic sewing kits for college kids.

Shredded paper - Makes great packing material for shipping gifts; also makes good packing material for when you are moving.

Old jeans - cut up and sew into squares full of padding to make pot holders.

Tires - build an earthship! Or, maybe just a tire swing.

Old shoes - send to Nike so the rubber can be turned into new playgrounds.

Bath mat - folded just right, can be used as a new floor mop!

Shower curtain - drop cloth for painting; cover the air conditioner during winter?

Mason canning jars - canning, obviously, but they also make great drinking glasses.

Paper - Be sure to use both sides of paper in the house. Just cut up “once used” paper and make notepads with the blank sides!

So what would you add?

EarthTalk is a weekly installment from E/The Environmental Magazine.

Dear EarthTalk: How or where can I recycle clothes that are too old or worn out for Goodwill?

Just because that old shirt you used to love is too threadbare to wear anymore doesn’t mean it has to end up in a landfill. “Consumers don’t understand that there’s a place for their old clothing even if something is missing a button or torn,” says Jana Hawley, a professor of textile and apparel management at the University of Missouri-Columbia. “Ninety-nine percent of used textiles are recyclable.”

Non-profits like Goodwill and the Salvation Army play a crucial role in keeping old clothes out of the waste stream. When they get donations of clothes that are too threadbare to re-sell in one of their shops, they send them to “rag sorters” that specialize in recycling pieces of fabric large and small. Says Hawley, these textile recyclers sell about half the clothing they get back overseas in developing countries, while unusable garments, especially cotton t-shirts, are turned into wiping and polishing clothes used by a variety of industries and sold to consumers. She adds that other textiles are shredded into fibers used to make new products, such as sound-deadening materials for the automotive industry, archival-quality paper, blankets and even plastic fencing.

Outdoor clothing and gear maker Patagonia, which plies a strong environmental mandate in key aspects of its operations (from sourcing of raw materials to managing waste to making grants to environmental nonprofits), in 2005 launched its innovative Common Threads Garment Recycling program. The program was originally begun so customers could return their worn out Capilene long undies for recycling, but has expanded to taking back Patagonia fleece and cotton t-shirts as well as Polartec fleece from other manufacturers. Consumers wanting to unload items that meet the program’s criteria can do so at any Patagonia retail store or by mailing them into the company’s Reno, Nevada service center.

Of course, do-it-yourselfers handy with needle-and-thread or sewing machines can turn their old clothes into new creations such as quilts, handbags and smaller items. The website Expert Village, which claims to have the largest online collection of “how-to” videos, offers a free series called “How to Recycle Old Clothes into New Fashions.” Short step-by-step videos in the series cover such topics as transforming old garments into works of art; sewing patches, buttons and beads onto old clothes; deconstructing a wedding dress; ironing graphics onto old garments, and much more. Another good use for threadbare clothes (as well as sheets and towels) is pet bedding, whether in your own home or donated to a local animal shelter.

According to the non-profit Institute for Local Self-Reliance, textiles make up about four percent of the weight and eight percent of the volume of all municipal solid waste in the U.S. The commercial recycling company U’SAgain—which runs private for-profit recycling services in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Minneapolis, Seattle, St. Louis and elsewhere—finds that some 85 percent of the 70 pounds of textiles the average American purchases each year ends up landfilled. That means the typical U.S. city with 50,000 residents has to pay (with local tax dollars) for the handling and disposal of some 3,000 tons of textiles every year. The shame of such waste is that textiles are so easy to recycle or otherwise find new uses for.

CONTACTS: Goodwill, www.goodwill.org; Salvation Army, www.salvationarmy.org; Patagonia, www.patagonia.com; Expert Village, www.expertvillage.com; U’SAgain, www.usagain.com.

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881 USA; submit it at EarthTalk; or e-mail us. Read past columns at our archives.