Going green - ideas for families

First steps

Charlotte recommends taking basic steps such as cancelling unwanted newspapers and junk mail through the Mailing Preference Service and avoiding heavily packaged goods when doing the weekly shop.

She adds: 'Even something as simple as re-using your carrier bags when you go to the supermarket can make a huge difference. Figures show that each person in the UK can use as many as 134 bags a year.'

Families with small children could also try a Nappy Laundry Service rather than using disposable nappies - the Real Nappy Association has tips on how to go about this - and sending kids to school with reusable containers for their lunches, rather than plastic wrappings and bags, can also help the environment.

She also recommends teaching children about environmental issues, so they grow up with an awareness of the environment and how to conserve it.

For further information on reducing, reusing and recycling your waste, visit www.recycle-more.co.uk

Plastic bottle puppets

Not everything we throw away is rubbish! There are lots of fun things that can be made by recycling everyday rubbish. This is an activity you and your child can do together.

What you need

• Small clean plastic drinks bottles
• Short wooden sticks
• Plasticine
• PVA glue
• Scrap paper
• Card
• Wool and fabrics
• Scissors
• Elastic bands

What to do

1. Help your child decide on the characters that she would like to make. Has she got a favourite story that she would like to tell using the puppets?
2. Choose your materials - think about what your character looks like to decide which materials you will need.
3. Stick your bottle on to the table with a lump of Plasticine to stop it rolling around while you make your puppet.
4. Make some clothes for your puppet - make a hole in the middle of some fabric, put it around the neck of the bottle and secure it with an elastic band.
5. Add some eyes and nose and mouth and hair, by sticking paper, plastic and wool to the bottle.
6. Push the stick into the neck of the bottle to finish your puppet.
7. Perhaps your child could tell a story using her puppet to her class at school.

Produced as part of Valpak's initiative to help children recycle more © Valpak Ltd 2001

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