How To Recycle 7 Things You Thought You Had To Throw Away

If you have a garden, save your hair clippings: They make a decent fertilizer, and the smell of human hair can repel deer.

Pass along any bicycles you no longer ride. The organization Bikes for the World finds good homes for them.

Save your soda-can tabs to give to a Ronald McDonald House, which provides housing to the families of seriously ill children receiving nearby hospital care. They raise funds for the houses by selling the tabs to recycling plants. To find the chapter nearest you, log onto rmhc.org.

Never toss hearing aids; mail them to Hear Now, a nonprofit program that gets them to those in need. Or ask your local Lions and Rotary Clubs if they collect them. Drop off old prescription eyeglasses, bifocals, and non-prescription sunglasses at LensCrafters or Goodwill stores.

Turn used crayons into new ones by sending them to the Crayon Recycle Program. Otherwise, they’ll sit in a landfill forever. Find out more at crazycrayons.com.

Send your old VHS tapes to Alternative Community Training, a nonprofit that hires workers with disabilities, who erase and repackage donated videocassettes. Or ask your local thrift shop if they accept them. And while you’re there, see what else they accept. You’d be surprised how often your trash will be someone else’s treasure.