Creative Ways to Reduce and Reuse Your Waste

Artswork are committed to reducing our impact and promoting environmental responsibility within our organisation and beyond. This journey is happening for 2 reasons:

1. We have a responsibility to better our ways of working so that we are helping the planet
2. To help children and young people receive the best arts and cultural education they can get, part of which is learning about the environment.

In the spirit of second-hand September and recycling week, we’re going to be showcasing creative ways to reduce and reuse your waste, and care for our planet!

Now we’re in the epicentre of the booming recycling movement, it’s a perfect opportunity to focus what this actually involves. Recycling (and it’s planet-friendly alternatives) has never been so enjoyable and accessible, so Environmental Responsibility Communications Assistant, Grace, and Communications Officer, Lisa, have collaborated on this blog about the first of the 3 R’s – reusing.

Although recycling is absolutely key and must always be an option, it needs to be the last option. Because we’ve been (rightly so) encouraged to recycle everything that stands still for long enough and is suitable, we rarely stop to wonder if we can re-purpose it (that’s just another R we’ve added!).

Paper is the most obvious choice when we look at giving an item a new life or using it one more time before disposing of it – and there’s much you can do with cut-off colourful craft paper, card, and even wrapping paper ends too! But other products like pipe cleaners, the odd button or a few sequins, that last bit of paint in the tube (cut it open to extricate the dregs) and loads more can add something to a craft project.

You wouldn’t believe all the ways you can reuse your recycling for arts and crafts, and this blog rounds up a few exciting and child friendly ideas. Or our Communications Officer, Lisa, shows you how make a bright and beautiful sunflower from odds and ends on Artswork’s new TikTok.

If you have a bigger project in mind but not enough scrap to reuse, look online for your local scrapstore, who reclaim clean, reusable waste from businesses and individuals that would otherwise go to landfill or be incinerated. If you’re a Southampton local, the Southampton Scrap Store non-profit organisation has everything from materials and textiles to art supplies. Join their membership by clicking here, then visit them in store for your next creative project.

We’d love to hear any of your reusing suggestions or ideas, so let us know by popping a comment on any of our social posts throughout this National Recycling Week.

Whether you’re an artist, a school / education setting, or a parent / guardian looking to become more environmentally aware, the opportunities for reusing are endless – your imagination is the limit!

Tags:

environment Environmental blogs environmental responsibility recycling week