10 recycling ideas for schools

The world is taking action against climate change and we all need to play our part

Introducing more creative recycling ideas

Have you thought about introducing more creative recycling ideas in your school to help pupils be more aware, engaged and knowledgeable about the importance of recycling for our planet? On the back of COP26, we thought we’d give you a few ideas on how you can introduce this into your classroom.

Firstly, what is COP26?

The past decade has been the hottest on record and over the last year, we have witnessed record temperatures in America, Canada and Antarctica, raging wildfires in Turkey, Greece, Italy, the US and Australia, and extreme flooding across Europe, Africa and China. It is now an “established fact” that these extreme and unpredictable weather events are the result of human activity. COP26 is a unique moment for the world to come together and tackle climate change and is our chance to fight back against the causes in order to protect our planet.

No doubt over the years, your school or club has tried to introduce some form of recycling initiative at some point and these could include things like:

10 Recycling Ideas

1. Paper – Using old cardboard boxes, you can create recycling paper points throughout your school or classroom. Make signs and decorate the boxes to make them stand out encourage people to put paper in the recycling bin as opposed to the rubbish bin.
2. Plastic – No doubt break and lunchtimes generate a huge about of plastic waste, so why not get a team together and start collecting and recycling plastic bottles?
3. Toner/Batteries – Schools go through an enormous amount of toner cartridges in printers and batteries in all the tech that we use. Why not collect these up and take them to your local drop off points in your area?
4. School dinners! – Recycling leftover school dinners by making a compost heap in school gardens. We are sure there is quite a bit of waste here, but you can turn it into compost and keep your school gardens nourished by creating great compost!
5. Re-making paper – This a great for little children and is a great practical learning experience watching how one material can be changed and reused just through an easy-peasy method such as reusing paper. Simply mix the used paper with water to remove the ink – this turns the paper into something called pulp. You can squash it, shape it and dry it flat to make new sheets of paper.
6. Tin cans – You could also teach the kids about other ways to change up the materials we use on a daily basis – but we wouldn’t advise these as practical exercises! Everyday items such as tin cans from beans, soup, fizzy drinks or dog food are soaked in special chemicals and melted down, crushed and reformed into new tins. Plan a school trip to see how this is done!
7. Audits/Action Plans – When it comes to educating older children about recycling, taking an active role helps them to understand recycling better and make positive changes that are real and measurable. These can include making a comprehensive full audit of all school waste such as paper, water, food etc, creating a timetabled plan of action for the improvements that need approval, setting SMART targets and engaging in planning meetings, creating and implementing strong advertising and marketing campaigns to allow more students to get involved and measuring performance and promoting the project to other year groups
8. Install a clothing bin – Why not install one of our FREE school branded recycled clothing bins outside your school premises, or inside the grounds if access allows, so that your local community can drop off any old clothes, shoes or household fabrics that they no longer need? These can be donated into one of our FREE Kids Just Recycle clothing bins and once you have collected 1 tonne of pre-loved, reusable items, we will pay you a staggering £400 per tonne!
9. Collect bags of clothes – Why not take on our Kids Fill The Bag challenge for 2022? Just fill 40 refuse sacks of pre-loved clothes, household textiles and paired shoes and we will pay you a HUGE £500 for your donations. Just organise a central collection point for your school team and book a collection with us and we will do the rest.
10. Referral scheme payments – If you have already installed one of our FREE branded clothing recycling bins on your school premises, you can earn a referral £100 fee by recommending another school or business in your area to do the same. If they go ahead and we install their bin, you get rewarded and you can make as many referrals as you like!