Reusing things that were destined for the rubbish bin means fewer landfill sites will be needed. Also less energy is needed for making new materials. Even if things eventually become rubbish it is good to reuse them first.

Instead of throwing away an old t-shirt you could give it to a charity shop. This means someone will buy your old t-shirt instead of buying a new one that would have used energy and money to make.

	Plastic takes over 20 years to rot away. Think of all the carrier bags used in supermarkets.
If 200 people shop in a supermarket every hour and they all use 2 carrier bags.
How many bags will they use in an hour?
How many bags in a 12 hour day
How many in a week?

If we reused carrier bags each time, instead of throwing them away, we would reduce the amount of rubbish created and the amount of energy used to make carrier bags.

There are many plastic items that we could reuse instead of throwing away, like drinks bottles which we could refill. Perhaps you could use a reusuable bottle or flask in your lunch box, instead of a drinks carton.

You could have a look in charity shops and buy reused items such as toys, books and clothes. They are much cheaper than other shops and you can find unusual and interesting things such as fancy dress clothes.

Repairing things and making new things out of old is also a useful way to save money and reduce rubbish. Have a look around your classroom or home, how many things are used for a different purpose to what they were originally designed for?

Before throwing broken things away, have a careful look to see if you can repair them. Old books for example can get very tatty and fall apart but they can easily be repaired with some card and sticky tape.