Ever wonder what to do with a landline telephone or a cordless phone when it no longer works? There really isn't a market for donating them to charity, reselling them or listing them online to give away; if the phone doesn't work, nobody can benefit from it. But the phone and its components are recyclable. Best Buy accepts any type of landline phone for recycling. Just bring it to the store, and they'll accept it for free, regardless of if you bought it there.

If you've ever had something shipped to you that needed to stay frozen or icy cold, it probably came with frozen gel packs. The blue liquid "gel" inside the packs can be kept frozen, and the packs can be reused over and over again in a cooler for your picnic, for example. But if you want to get rid of the packs, go ahead and let them thaw. Open the packets with scissors, and let the liquid go down the drain. It's completely nontoxic. The empty plastic pouches can be recycled with plastic shopping bags at grocery stores.

If you do just one thing, give up disposable plastic straws. Not only are they unnecessary, they are an environmental menace. According to the website choosetobestrawfree.com, over 500 million plastic straws are produced every single day, with a large majority of them ending up in landfills and oceans. Every year, over 1 million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals ingest the plastic. At restaurants, refuse straws, opt out of disposable silverware and invest in reusable cups with built-in straws for your iced coffee drinks.