Recycling

Do you know what recycling means?

Recycling means making rubbish into something new. Every time you throw something away it gets sent to landfill (a big rubbish dump). Or worse still, ends up in the ocean, like millions of items of plastic each year. But many items can be recycled, rather than thrown away – helping to keep the planet cleaner!

Can you tell us which colour bin is the recycling bin?

There are actually two different types of recycling bin in Surrey Heath, green bins or black bins with a blue lid.

Once you've used them, you can put items made from things like plastic, cardboard, glass and metal inside the bin. It's really important the items are clean, dry, and loose (not in plastic bags) - otherwise they might not be collected. So rinse off any food that's left on the items before putting them in the recycling bin.

You can also recycle food waste, small electrical items like irons or radios, batteries and much more.

There are more details on the types of things you can recycle on the Joint Waste Solutions website(external link) and the Surrey Recycles App(external link) where you can check if something is recyclable.

Make your own musical instruments

You can make your own music shakers - all you need is a kitchen roll tube, paper, some uncooked rice and sticky tape.

Use old cans and balloons to make small drums. Instantly you’ve got a drummer and a shaker. Next you could make a guitar out of a tissue box and some elastic bands! Just follow the instructions on the BBC website.

Recycle a T-shirt into your own bag

Why not make your own bag out of a t-shirt and help reduce plastic bag usage. This is a great way to reuse and repurpose old clothing into a practical everyday item - follow the instructions here. Think how else can you could use a T-shirt to reduce, reuse and recycle?

Play a game

Recycling doesn’t need to be boring! Count how many items in a day that you check to see if they are recyclable before you put them in the correct bin. Who has checked the most items in a week?

You could even collect the recyclable items you’ve saved from the general rubbish – whoever has the most at the end of the week gets a prize!

Can you go a whole day without throwing something in the bin?

Eco Friendly Craft Activities

You can find lots of eco friendly craft activities on Surrey Environment Partnership's Wastebuster website.