A smart New Zealand college student has helped a local company cut their waste bill to just $25 while creating unique items from recycled material.

Simon Higgs had a great idea. Using donated material from a local recycling program, he has designed and created a stool.

Wow, you say. But wait, it gets better.

The Otago Polytechnic product design student used salvaged MDF board as a frame and discarded skin foam to cushion the seat.

Wow, again, you say. But wait, it gets even better than that.

The stool is an example of what happens when waste is considered a resource, something we would all like to see happen more often.

The material used to make the stool was collected waste from a local Dunedin business called Step Up Joinery, and was collected through a Christchurch waste exchange program.

Step Up Joinery’s managing director Neil Rutherford said the company had donated the material because it discovered that much of its waste could still be useful if there was a way to recycle it. Through the Christchurch program, the material is collected and distributed to area schools, such as Otago Polytechnic.

Step Up Joinery also gives away its wood shavings to be used as firewood and in chicken coops. And as a result, the company's waste bill of about $600 a month has dwindled to $25.

True, it’s just be a stool, but its upholstery hides an intriguing concept - what can happen when people use their perspicacity and come up with intriguing ways to reduce, reuse and recycle. The concept has already caught on, too. Waste to resource recycling is a topic that will be discussed at a workshop in Dunedin, New Zealand, next month.