Get together with your neighbours and clean up the road or local park.

A fun way to get your neighbours involved with recycling is to invoite them to join you clean up your road or choose a local park/ venue that needs a bit of cleaning. Keep all the recycled items aside and have it ready for collection with your next pick up with Recycle1st.

End the day off with a bring and share and enjoy some camaraderie.

Do a cleanout of old toys which can be donated and reused by other children. Get the kids involved in the spirit of giving.

Start early in making your wrapping paper for gifts. Instead of the printed shop-bought, use brown paper and stamp it with some homemade stamps and paint. The kids would absolutely love painting and decorating it for gifts.

This is one of those activities that demonstrates how much cheaper it is to use recycled materials than to buy something brand new.

We love crafting with toilet paper and paper towel rolls. I have everyone trained to save all the toilet paper rolls. We have a box just for cardboard rolls with our craft supplies. 

SUPPLIES:

• Peanut Butter
• Ice sucker sticks
• Bird seed
• Toilet paper rolls
• Wool or fishing gut

Update: Many have asked for alternatives to peanut butter. I have not tried any of these, but these are suggestions I have recieved: sunflower butter, almond butter, or soy butter. This natural homemade glue was also suggested. You can find it here. 

DIRECTIONS:

1. Using a popsicle stick, cover outside of toilet paper roll with peanut butter. 

2. Roll the peanut butter covered toilet paper roll in the bird seed until covered.

3. Thread a piece of twine through the toilet paper roll and knot.

4. Hang where birds can enjoy.

Don’t throw away the cardboard boxes and yogurt containers! Build a robot with these materials.

Build a robot from household items

Let younger kids enjoy building a robot from everyday household items. It’s lots of fun and is sure to keep their attention.

What you’ll need:

• Useful materials include soft drink lids, old boxes, tin foil, ice cream containers, old clothing, various material, straws, paper and crayons.

General instructions:

• You’ll need quite a lot of materials (depending on how many children will be taking part). A good idea is to start off with unused cardboard boxes and go from there. The children can glue or tape boxes together to form the general shape of a robot before attaching other items to complete the project. There is room for a wide variety of ideas on this project so if you have an idea that you think will work then give it a go!