Our planet and oceans are counting on all of us to take responsibility and get pro-active when it comes to eco-friendly ventures. Aside from recycling your Babycup First Cups (read more about that here), there are a great deal of ways you can help the worldwide recycling effort in fun and unusual ways! And you can get your children involved too, learning through fun activities with a globally positive impact. Here are two of our favourites:

Make bio-degradable Seed Paper

If you find yourself with lots of paper that needs to be recycled, instead of taking it all to the usual recycling bins you could use some of it to make Wildflower Seed Paper, using seeds bees love for an extra planet-saving bonus! It’s messy, fun and great for the planet! Here’s how:

You’ll need…

Paper ready for recycling! Run through a paper shredder or cut up into small pieces to fill 1 1/2 cups for each card.

Wildflower seeds

Large bowl of warm water

Dishtowels

Biscuit cutters to make shapes (optional)

Parchment paper

Instructions

1. Soak the paper pieces in the bowl of water overnight so that water is fully absorbed
2. Blend the saturated paper into a thick pulp
3. Squeeze excess water from pulped paper and remove lumps
4. Add a handful of seeds to the pulp.
5. Press into your desired shape (using biscuit cutters if you wish!). No more than ½ inch thick.
6. Press your shapes onto parchment for even coverage.
7. Leave somewhere warm and airy to allow to dry quickly. You don’t want this to take too long or the seeds will start to grow!

These make wonderful gifts and gift tags! Decorate with ribbon or thread to hang or tie or use rubber stamp to make patterns and textures when wet. You could even use a little food colouring to make all sorts of wonderful shades, or get really creative by using natural dye. Beetroot for vibrant purple, chamomile for light blue, turmeric for yellow…

Upcycle Plastics Bottles

One of the best things you can do to help limit waste is to invest in a reusable drinking bottle to take out with you (and of course, pop your Babycup First Cup into your bag too, to fill up for your little ones on the go!), but what can we do with all those plastic bottles already kicking around? Recycle most of them, but keep some aside to repurpose and turn into something great!

DIY Supply Cups

Keep your creative kit in order, with these easy to make pencil cases…

You’ll need…

2 x 500ml plastic bottles

1 x zip

Scissors (and mum or dad to operate!)

Hot glue

Instructions

1. Cut the tops off your bottles and trim down to the size you want. One will be the case and the other will be the lid.
2. Check your zip fits around the circumference of the bottle, with a slight overlap at the end. Cut to size, if necessary.
3. Glue one side of the zip along the inside of the bottle top, with the correct side of the zip facing outward. Ensure there is plenty of room for your zip to run freely (not too close to the edge!). Glue the overlap together when the ends meet.
4. Repeat this step with the other half of the zip on the other bottle.