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Organise an event or activity

Local community events are a great way to pass on unwanted items!

Give and Take Day

Give and Take events are a great opportunity for people to pick up something they need or get rid of something they don’t ...all for free!

Invite people from your community to drop off their unwanted toys, clothes, shoes, jewellery, bags, kitchenware, CDs, DVDs, games and books a few days before the event. Make sure people only bring items which are in good condition and in safe working order.

Hand out leaflets or put up posters at your local library, community hall or similar public places to let people know about the event. Talk to your neighbours and see if anyone is up for helping you organise it. It really helps to team up with a local community group as their members already have a presence in the area and can help you get more people involved. It's also useful to link with a local charity that can collect any items left over at the end of the day.

Fun activities for kids like decorating reusable cloth bags and providing recycling information for adults can turn a Give and Take Day into an informative and exciting event for the whole community.

Handicraft event

Arts and crafts activities like making cards, gifts, puppets and many other items from recyclable materials can be a fun way to get people together and show them how they can reuse things they would normally throw away.

You could also use old clothes to make new fashionable items and put on a fashion show at the end for your recycled and vintage clothing.

The possibilities are endless and you may have more ideas of your own!

Community composting

Community Composting is where a community gets together to make compost.

There may be times when making compost alone is either impractical or undesirable. For example, a small back garden may not be suitable for a compost heap. Working together for the benefit of the community pools resources and can make the venture more viable and more enjoyable.

The community provides the raw materials and benefits from the end product. What would usually end up as waste in landfill sites is turned into a valuable soil improver for use by individuals in their own gardens or for larger projects like parks or green spaces in the community. It also helps local authorities meet government recycling targets.

To find out about the general benefits of composting, visit our Compost pages. To find out more about community composting or how to set up your own community compost project visit the Community Compost Network.

Each week the average household receives 18 pieces of junk mail, that's almost 1,000 pieces a year! Sadly most of this ends up in landfill.