Do you have knitting needles, skeins of yarn or other knitting materials that you no longer need? If you took up knitting but gave up, there's no need to let your supplies go to waste. The nonprofit the Knitting Connection wants them so its volunteers can knit new hats, mittens, sweaters and scarves for children in need. As with any donation, be sure to donate only new, quality materials. Learn more at theknittingconnection.org.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Americans throw away about 1.6 billion disposable pens every year. The greenest upgrade is to invest in a refillable pen and use that in lieu of disposables. But a more realistic approach is to limit the number of disposable pens you take from hotel rooms, banks or as freebies from promotional events. Also, if markers or permanent pens no longer work, they may not be ready to throw out. Try dipping the tip in rubbing alcohol; this can "undry" the ink and make the markers as good as new again.

When it comes to shopping green, it's always a good thing to look for products made from recycled materials. But when it comes to buying toilet paper, you may want to think twice about buying recycled. Recycled-content toilet paper is made from paper items like copy paper, junk mail and magazines that are shredded, pulped, de-inked and re-processed. But paper receipts -- also known as thermal receipts -- can sometimes end up in the recycling stream. These receipts are coated in the chemical bisphenol A (BPA), a known endocrine disrupter, which can end up in recycled toilet paper. To avoid BPA, look for unbleached, virgin product instead.