According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the average American produces nearly five pounds of waste per day.  Recyclable paper products account for 35 percent of material filling landfills and, despite the popularity of thrift stores and giveaway groups like Freecycle, perfectly useful items like appliances, electronics, and clothing are thrown away rather than donated.  Despite being urged to “go green,” many individuals continue down the path of environmental destruction.  They drive vehicles that fill the air with pollutants, replace perfectly good items with bigger and more expensive products, and fail to bring their own cloth bags to the grocery store.  The fate of the planet is not real enough to get them to carry their own reusable mug to Starbucks.  They consume and toss away things with reckless abandon and expect others to pick up the pieces for them.

Do-It-Yourselfers and Crafty Dudes and Divas see trash as a viable tool for future projects.  In fact, plastic water bottles, old t-shirts, and cassette tapes that were once thought of as trash find new uses in the following books released earlier this year:

• Fantastic Recycled Plastic: 30 Clever Creations to Spark Your Imagination by David and Robin A. Edgar – Lark Books.  You will never look at plastic laundry detergent bottles in the same way after picking up a copy of this book.  Transforming ordinary garbage into remarkable airplanes and plastic lobsters is easy, just as long as you follow the authors’ step-by-step instructions.  Projects range in difficulty according to skill level but can be adapted according to the type of supplies one has on hand prior to creating the recycled designs.  Readers will use a number of tools throughout the process, including a screwdriver, nut driver, drill, compression block, electric staple gun, pop rivet gun, and glue gun.  Handy templates in the back of the book make cutting the plastic to size effortless.  Full color photographs of reader-submitted projects can also be found throughout the book.  Proving that “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” Fantastic Recycled Plastic combines ingenuity with skill to produce something meaningful out of ordinary disposable household items.  Retailing for $19.95, the book itself was printed on recycled paper with agri-based inks.

• Craft Cycle: 100+ Eco-Friendly Projects and Ideas for Everyday Living by Heidi Boyd – North Light Books.  Want to create exceptional home furnishings and cool accessories using supplies that you have lying around the house?  Can’t bear to part with all the slides you inherited from your grandparents’ trip abroad?  Put on your thinking cap, gather up a few essential tools, and get busy craft-cycling.  Author Boyd takes average household waste and turns it into extraordinary new items, like candy wrapper purses, t-shirt rugs, and license plate mailboxes.  One of the most exceptional projects in the book includes a lamp made out of slides mounted in plastic.  Once completed, the lampshade emits light and illuminates the room and the tiny photographs contained within its frame.  A true conversation piece, a person could spend an afternoon cleaning out closets and weeding things out of the donation box rather than take a trip to an arts and craft or home improvement store, if he or she is looking for inspiration.  Divided into chapters according to season, Boyd includes self-improvement projects as well as recipes to go along with her helpful tutorials.  Retailing for $22.99 and worth every penny, CraftCycle is the type of gift that keeps on giving.

• Eco Books: Inventive Projects from the Recycling Bin by Terry Taylor – Lark Books.  Who doesn’t love books?  Small, portable, and full of amazing ideas, printed media comes in all forms these days, as demonstrated within the pages of Terry Taylor’s new release, Eco Books. Projects take items like egg cartons, unwanted cassette tapes, and road maps and turn them into exquisite bound books suitable to sell or give away as gifts.  Full color tutorials demonstrate the level of skill needed for each project, and reader submissions include books made out of corrugated cardboard boxes, fabric, manila folders, and foam mouse-pads. Helpful tutorials provide enough instruction that even a novice will find it easy to create one-of-a-kind books to give all of his or her friends this holiday season. A fun way to reuse items that would otherwise be thrown away, Eco Books retails for $22.95 and was printed on recycled paper as well.  Proving that inspiration comes from some of the most unlikely places, this title will impress anyone willing to pick up a copy of it.

Everyone can do their part to help the planet.  One small act, like up-cycling aluminum cans or altering bottle-caps to make jewelry, can really make a difference.  If you still aren’t certain of that, look within the pages of these books for inspiration.  I know I have found plenty of amazing ideas to try!