reason enough to practise the "three R's''.

Another incentive, however, is the personal satisfaction found in conservation efforts and of course, extra money in the bank, according to environmentalist and part-time occupational therapist at Westmeath, Mrs. Elizabeth Wingate.

Mrs. Wingate became interested in the environment just before the birth of her daughter, Rosalind about 18 years ago. Formerly a full time occupational therapist at St. Brendan's Hospital, she had little time for hobbies.

"But when I had my daughter I was in the position to be involved in other things,'' she said.

"I started vegetable gardening where I discovered I could re-use several household objects. For instance, instead of buying plastic boxes (which only last a season) to protect my seedlings, I cut up milk cartons.

"And I think about everything before throwing it away. If I can possibly re-use it, I'll keep it.

"I have bees so I always hold on to glass bottles for honey. And if I can't avoid purchasing food wrapped in polystyrene packaging, which I think is excessive and uncalled for, I use the packaging for picnic plates,'' she said.

Typically, Mrs. Wingate uses a cloth bag when grocery shopping. "But if I forget to bring a bag, I ask for cardboard boxes which I re-use,'' she said.

"Merchants seem to appreciate it when I refuse their bags. After all, they're saving money.

"But when I first started taking cloth bags to the market, attendants would put groceries in paper bags before placing them in my cloth bags and I'd tell them to remove the paper bags.

"I just want to make a point -- the environment's very important and it's really not hard to reduce the amount of waste produced.

And reducing waste is her specialty. Not only does Mrs. Wingate save the general recyclable items such as aluminium and newspapers for the recycling bin, but she goes so far as to have her gerbils gnaw at cardboard boxes, toilet paper rolls and the like.

"Gerbils love lightweight cardboard,'' she said. "They don't eat it but they chew it up into shreds which I put in the compost.'' Mrs. Wingate has her own compost but little is left to go in it. "Basically it holds cardboard remnants from the gerbils and weeds from the garden,'' she said. "We give any food scraps to the chickens,'' she added.

Water is used with great caution in the Wingate household. When the tank gets low, Mrs. Wingate catches rinsing water from the washing machine in five gallon buckets and uses it in the wash cycle of the next load.

Mrs. Wingate never uses air conditioning. And she has solar panelling in her home. "The initial implementation is expensive but in the long run, I save money. And if you have to install a new heating system, you might as well use solar. It produces good hot water,'' she added.

"I do have to change a few habits to accommodate the system. For instance, I can't have a hot shower in the morning -- especially in the winter. But I simply wait for a few hours.'' Mrs. Wingate also recycles clothing. Rather than throw away old garments, she takes them to a Salvation Army outlet. Likewise, she purchases any useful vintage clothing.

"I find conservation an interesting subject,'' she said. "Many people haven't yet adopted the practice of recycling. But they should give it more consideration.

"It means saving money as well as the environment. And it gives me a great sense of satisfaction,'' she added.

WASTING NOTHING -- Mrs. Elizabeth Wingate, shown here with her "composter gerbil'', does not throw anything away without thinking about how it can be used.

RODENT RECYCLER -- Mrs. Elizabeth Wingate uses a gerbil to chew cardboard into shreds before it goes on the compost heap.