On Wednesday of this week, we asked you for your helpful hints and inside ideas on what you creatively reused at work. From paper to binders, here’s what you said (and who won the contest).

The workplace can be a hotbed for environmentally friendly behavior, whether we're making sure to recycle our TPS reports or choosing to bring our own mug for the water cooler, instead of going through an entire sleeve of those triangle paper cups. And while we simply offered up the importance of reusing paperclips and rubber bands, you came through in the clutch and delivered these fine gems below.

CoolPeople everywhere: Take note of the following ideas and inspiration and make your place to work a green place to work:

I cut up paper that has a blank side and use it for scrap paper (lists, notes, passes for students to their next classes, etc.).

I reuse the paper and envelopes from work after I've scanned the information in the system at home as scrap paper and in our printer.

This year, in an effort to clean out my old teaching files, I took the paper and have used it as a scrap pile of paper for my students that come to class unprepared.

I have been reusing glass bottles as vases.

After receiving two boxes of letterhead with the wrong zip code and phone number printed in the side margin, we trimmed off the sides and had the remaining sheets glued into notepads of 100 sheets each.

Twice a year we have a sales conference, and typically each employee in our department gets a new 3-ring binder with description sheets for each new product in sheet protectors. After the sales conference, I never even open my binder because the online database is much easier to access. I've suggested that we scale back on the binders, because it is simply a waste for most of us in the department who prefer the online database, but tradition has the final say. So some of us have taken to using our same binders every year, using the same exact sheet protectors, and just replacing the product pages. This year, I'm not even going to print out product pages for me but will bring my old binder with the old pages, because really all people want to see is that I have a fancy binder. No one will notice that I didn't print out the new pages, which I would never use anyway.

I am an archivist, responsible for storage of documents for City Hall, and for their destruction once they are no longer in need of retention. I also maintain "historic" documents. I remove staples, clips, rubber bands and such for recycling. I also recycle pendaflex files and file folders, and legal folders. Finally, since our temporarily stored documents are retained in bankers' boxes, I work hard to ensure that these boxes are recycled and reused the next time we need to store documents temporarily. I hope my efforts save money and some trees, etc. My next effort will be to get us to do paper shredding through a recycling firm so that the paper we dispose of gets a "second life".

Of course there is always the reuse of file folders (that's what those wonderful multi-colored stickers are for, aren't they?). I also have recurring files from one year to the next and simply transfer those little plastic name holders from one year's hanging file to the next year's. Not only do I not have to rewrite all the same two hundred names, but also I don't have to buy 200 new plastic name holders.

I use one piece of paper 4 times in my fax machine for confirmations. I just turn the paper over and upside down and get four confirmations on one page!

I scavenge the office recycle bins for my scratch/note paper. Usually documents are printed on only one side, leaving the other side blank and ready for my scribbles. Then I send the paper back to the recycle bin when I'm done!

At work I recycle paper, paper clips, binder clips and aluminum cans. We also do not have a plastic recycling place so I take them home with me and put them in my recycling bin.

I used to work in the same building as a Subway restaurant. A caffeine junky, I would have a fountain diet coke each day (because we all know that fountain soda is soooo much better than bottles or cans!). I bought one of the bigger plastic cups and would reuse it for the week (but would pay for a new drink each time...no refill scandal here). Less trash, less waste – Easy to do!

I work at a non-profit, so in addition to trying to be more "green," we also save pennies wherever we can. I use both sides of paper! I often print out something that would then be thrown away. Instead, I flip it over and put it back in my printer to use the other side! Of course I don't reuse any papers that have personal information from our donors! But I find that I get a lot more mileage out of one sheet of paper!

During the winter and near the end of the day my hair often gets frizzy, but since it wasn't in the morning, I don't always have ponytail holders with me. I've used office rubber bands before as hair ties, but when my hair is pretty short, it falls out the side, so I figured out how to paperclip the sides that are falling out up so you can't see the paperclips. Honestly, it's not as bad as it sounds!

I teach pre-school and we use the boxes that our snacks come in to make our own blocks. We stuff them from the used copy paper bin and then once they are beyond use we put them in the paper recycler. The kids love the different sizes the boxes come in to make colorful "cities".

I work for a 911 agency and, as you can imagine, slinging fire trucks and ambulances brings along a lot of report writing/ paperwork. We get new updated maps every year and use the old ones to educate our new employees so they can scribble all over them or give away to people who might need them. We also take all those reports and cut them into quarters and make notepads to take notes on when we take 911 calls. All our battery-powered stuff is rechargeable so we don't create much waste that way, either.

And while all these ideas are extremely valuable, the one that rose to the top was from Jennifer. She shared:

I've turned an empty Orbit gum box into a business card holder!

Those 12 words netted her a Today is a New Day poster for her workspace. Not bad for donning a catchy trashpiece to hold her business cards.

Take every chance you have to reuse something between 9 and 5 today.

19 others have done this "5 minutes of caring" To date, you've cared for 0 minutes on CoolPeopleCare.org

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