Recycling ideas to reduce your footprint
Did you know that 8 million tonnes of plastic enters the ocean each year?
As consumers, we have a responsibility to reduce our impact on the planet by recycling and reusing as much as we can.
For Global Recycling Day, we’ve been thinking of how we can reduce our waste, recycle and give old empties a new life. Check out these ideas:
Tin Can Windowsill Herb Garden
Recycle old tins or pretty craft beer cans as well as rescuing shop-bought herbs and create your own windowsill herb garden! Simply clean out and decorate your recycled can, drop in a layer of pebbles, add soil and some herb seedlings and away you go!
Glass Jar Terrarium
Terrariums don't have to be enormous or expensive – in fact you can recyle old jam jars, coffee jars or Mason jars to make your own mini terrariums and bring a little green into your life. All you need is a jar, some small rocks or gravel, soil and terrarium plants.
Plastic Bottle Bird Feeder
Plastic bottles of any size can be easily made into bird feeders to hang from your windowsill or balcony. Use wooden spoons or dowels for perches and cut holes big enough for the birds to get at the seeds. Simply fill with seeds, hang outside and soon you'll feel like a Disney princess!
Tea Cup Candles
If you're a candle addict, you'll know the pain of having dregs of old candles to deal with. Well did you know you can recycle your old candles to make new ones (as long as they're the same type of wax)? Once melted, you can pour the wax back into the original jar, or, if you’ve got some old tea cups lying around, they make beautiful homemade gifts!
Recycle at stores
Instead of throwing away your old clothes or purchases, many of our brands have recycling schemes you can take advantage of:
- At M&S, you can donate your old clothes (they don't have to be from M&S) to one of its Shwop boxes and they’ll be resold, reused or recycled for Oxfam to help to reduce poverty
- Support children’s education and donate your old or unwanted shoes to UNICEF by bringing them to Shoeshare points at Clarks stores
- In 2016, Mango set up donation stations in its shops for customers to return their old clothing. Now you can shop the Second Chances range, which used the donated fabric to make brand new garments!
- Zara has a used clothes collection programme – simply bring your used clothes to the store and they will donate them to the non-profit organisations they work with.
