The Environment Agency has begun the year by reminding everyone to recycle waste, and help make a big change to the environment. During 2002, the Agency is hoping that people will make a fresh start to the year by cutting down on what they throw away and trying to put 'waste' material to good use.

It may be a bit late, but following the seasonal festivities, why not keep your now redundant Christmas cards and use them as gift tags next year? Christmas trees can also be recycled by taking them to local authority or gardening centre recycling points where they will be transformed into gardening mulch.

Christmas and New Year parties may also have produced a mountain of cans and bottles. A visit with your empties to the local bottle bank or can recycling point, this month, could mark the start of an excellent recycling habit for 2002.

Most people have old clothes in their wardrobe that they never wear. Why not fill a carrier bag full of clean clothes and donate them to your local charity shop. Alternatively, you can cut them down for rags and cloths to use at home.

There is an increasing number of goods are made from recycled materials these days. Try the recycled equivalent of products you would normally buy in a shop, such as toilet rolls or bin liners as the quality is just as good. Consider not buying goods with too much packaging and also, don't forget to re-use your old plastic carrier bags when you go shopping.

Other ideas for recycling include:

• Investing in a battery charger to save on waste batteries.
• Composting vegetable peelings for use in the garden.
• Re-using items such as bottles and containers, and buying refills wherever possible.

Every day people in this country put enough rubbish in their dustbins to fill the whole of Trafalgar Square up to the level of Nelson's feet! About half of this waste could be usefully recycled, saving raw materials and reducing the amount of energy used to produce new goods. Recycling also reduces the amount of waste going to landfill sites, man made holes in the ground where waste is buried. Space in these sites is fast running out.

Much of what we throw away could be recycled or re-used. Better still, it need not become waste in the first place. Everyone can help to minimise the amount of waste they produce by following the 3R's message that the Agency promotes around the region - Reduce, Re-use and Recycle. Further information on recycling initiatives can be obtained by contacting your local Agency office on 0845 333111.

Telephone the Waste Watch Waste-line (on 0870 2430136) for advice on where and what you can recycle and more ideas for reducing waste. www.wastewatch.org.uk