A Dubbo woman is encouraging people to stop throwing away things that aren't broken.
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Lorna Brennan is passionate about recycling and turning unwanted items into something useful.
The Buninyong School as Community Centre local facilitator says she doesn't have a lot of money to spend on resources, so she's learnt to get creative.
Items like egg cartons can be turned into models of toilets to help educate on the need for better sanitation around the world or coffee grounds are used to create artworks.
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Ms Brennan estimates about 75 per cent of things in the centre's toy room have has been recycled from either her own family members, the kerbside clean-up or op-shops.
"There's a skip out the back here that the school has and I'm always raking in that skip to see what things I can find," Ms Brennan said.
"When they were redoing all the air conditioning at the school here they had reels of electrical cabling. I pinched all the reels out of the skip.
"We use them for different games and things for the kids. There's a big one they use as a little cafe table."
When fabric-covered cubes from the library were thrown out, the local facilitator grabbed those too.
"I get a real kick out it," Ms Brennan said.
She has criticised the "throw away mentality" in society at the moment that leads to excessive waste.
"I got a washing machine from a friend once. I said 'what's wrong with your washing machine?' and they said 'it went bang and a puff of black smoke came out of it one day'," Ms Brennan said.
"I asked if I could have it because I knew what was wrong. There was a little switch that cost $5 that I replaced."
Dubbo Regional Council's bulky waste pick-up is a great time for Ms Brennan, as it gives her the opportunity to rehome things people plan to throw away.
"I get so many things and things that aren't broken that makes you think 'why are they throwing this away?'," she said.
It was recently National Recycling Week.
Research recently released by Kellogg's Australia has shown 84 per cent of NSW residents aren't aware soft plastics can be recycled, while 32 per cent have limited knowledge.
Ms Brennan said she was always trying to learn more about recycling.
"I have taken the children out to the dump on occasion and we've had talks on recycling. It's fascinating,' Ms Brennan said.
Every time, she said she had leant something new.
"I assumed pizza boxes were recyclable. They're not. Christmas paper? It's not recyclable," Ms Brennan said.
"I do try. But it is hard because it does change."