When you’ve got to throw away batteries, cardboard boxes and plastic bottles, the word “recycling” comes instantly to your mind, isn’t it?

But, what about diapers and used bras?

Or, better an old toilet?

As strange as it might sound, these items can be recycled rather than being thrown in landfills.

#1. An Old Toilet

In the last few years, I’ve seen a considerable number of old toilets being collected as trash.

Want to know what I find so wrong about it?

There seemed to be absolutely no damage to the porcelain – no cracks or chips.

With a little refurbishing here and there and it could have smelled like brand new.

Look, I’m not asking you to hold on to a 30-year-old toilet, but if it isn’t cracked, donating it to a recycling facility can be considered as a ridiculously easy way to help save the planet.

Your thought: But, what exactly do they gain by recycling toilets?

I was told that the porcelain is converted into concrete, which is then used for roads and sidewalks.

Out of all recycling centers, one popular facility you can approach is Habitat for Humanity.

#2. Cigarette Waste

The closest you can get to the efficient disposal of cigarettes is to make sure they are completely cool, avoid toilets and gutters and go straight for landfill trash.

Did you know you could go more eco-friendly?

Uh, no. How exactly?

See, TerraCycle, a waste management company based in the US, came up with a brilliant strategy of recycling cigarette waste into a wide range of industrial products like plastic pallets.

Back in the early wild and woolly days, when sustainability and green lifestyle were introduced, the concept of recycling cigarette waste would have been seen as unrealistic.

Yet, here we are today, where extinguished cigarettes, cigar stubs, outer plastic packaging, inner foil packaging, rolling paper and even the ash are being molded to usable plastic products.

#3. Used Toothbrush

If you take an average American, you’d learn that they can throw up to 300 toothbrushes in their lifetime.

Woah…that’s a lot!

If you take it from a dentist’s perspective, bristles can be worn out after 2-3 months of use, rendering your toothbrush completely useless and inefficient in the removal of harmful dental plaque.

And, if you look at it from a consumer’s point of view, it’s not such a big deal to purchase a new toothbrush for they are quite cheap.

But, if Mother Nature enters the chat, you’d realize that throwing billions of toothbrushes can lead to a significant increase in the world’s already overflowing waste problem.

To avoid this sheer dilemma, Colgate and Sam’s club have come together with TerraCycle to recycle standard toothbrushes into useful stuff such as school supplies.

So, what are you waiting for? Ship them your old and used toothbrushes.

#4. Lightly Used Bras

They don’t fit.

They are not so-pretty-you-don’t-want-to-hide-them.

You don’t like wireless ones.

You’ve used them for too many years now.

So, what do you do then?

Let them collect dust? Or, give them away to some friends?

Either way, at some point, they’ll end up in the trash.

So, how about donating them to women in need?

Many are not aware that you’ve got women in this world who wear basically the same bras for a few months only because they cannot afford to buy a new one.

With poverty affecting a considerable number of people in the world, bras is equaled with food and seen as a luxury that these needy people cannot afford.

You don’t have the heart to throw away your used bras. Well, you can at least donate them to several institutions that collect bras and distribute them to poor women.

#5. Used Cooking Oil

It might sound unusual as you might be used to throwing away used cooking oil but there are several facilities that can recycle this oil.

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever recycled?