Recycle Week 2021 Activities and Resources

Recycle Week is an annual event which celebrates the importance of recycling. This year Recycle Week is from September 20th to September 26th. It is the 18th year of promoting recycling as a way of protecting our planet for the future. Government agencies, retailers, schools and the media come together to encourage us to recycling more of the right items, more often. Celebrate with Recycle Week 2021 activities and resources including art projects, hands-on learning activities and book recommendations.

This special week was created by WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) which was originally established as a not-for-profit company in 2000 and later became a charity in 2014. Its main focus is creating a world where resources are used sustainably by governments, businesses and citizens.

This year’s theme is: “Step it Up this Recycle Week”. Climate change has been a focus of media attention and this year’s theme aims to promote recycling as a method of impacting climate change both on a large scale and through individual efforts.

How can we promote Recycle Week at home and in the classroom? Check out these Recycle Week 2021 activities for inspiration.

Recycled Art Projects:

Homemade Bird Feeders

This is a fun way for you and your kids to get to know which birds live in your area, and to help them find food.

For this activity:

1. You will need: an orange, string, bird seed and a knife.
2. Cut the orange in half and scoop out the flesh. 
3. Poke a hole on each side of the orange half. 
4. Tie the ends of a string through each hole.
5. Fill with bird seed.
6. Find a tree to hand your feeder on and watch the local birds enjoy their treat!

Recycled Bottle Cap Fish Art

Create beautiful recycled artwork using old bottle caps to make this simple, easy-to-create masterpiece, suitable for all ages.

For this activity:

1. You will need: old bottle caps, blue paper, green tissue paper, glitter pens, coloured paper cut into triangles (for tails), googly eyes, glue.
2. Glue triangles onto blue paper. 
3. Glue googly eyes onto bottle caps. 
4. Glue bottle caps onto triangles to create the body of the fish.
5. Decorate the bodies of the fish with glitter pens. 
6. Twist and crumple the tissue paper and glue down, filling in the gaps between the fish.
7. Add bubbles using the glitter pens. 
8. Your artwork is complete! 

Other creative recycling projects:

Easy Hands-on Recycling Activities:

Recycling Scavenger Hunt:

Head out to a local park and see how much you can collect from the environment that can be recycled! After collecting recyclable items, sort them into categories – plastics, paper, glass and metal.

Donate Old Toys and Clothes:

Go through your cupboards, and instead of throwing away toys your kids are done playing with and clothes that are too small, help them choose some to be donated and reused by other children.

Sorting Materials Game:

Collect a selection of recyclable and non-recyclable material from around the house. Mix these items up and lay them out. Let your child sort the items into two tubs, either recyclable or non-recyclable. Give a point for each correct item and discuss those that were placed in the wrong tub.

Best Books to Teach About Recycling:

What a Waste: Rubbish, Recycling and Protecting our Planet

This book is perfect to introduce environmental issues to children.

Why should you use this book?

• It is an engaging book with great illustrations.
• Facts will get kids thinking about what they can to do help protect the planet.
• Bite size bits of information means that younger learners will stay interested.

Change Starts with Us

This is a colourful book which tries to encourage children to make positive actions that can make the world a nicer place.

Why should you use this book?

• It highlights things we can all do to lessen our impact on the environment.
• This illustrations are great and its board book pages are ideal for younger learners.
• Children will take away positive messages about small changes making a big impact.

Adventures of a Plastic Bottle

This book teaches about recycling from a new perspective as it peeks into the diary of a plastic bottle as it goes on a journey from the refinery plant, to the manufacturing line, to the store shelf, to a garbage can, and finally to a recycling plant where it emerges into it’s new life as a fleece jacket.

Why should you use this book?

• Told from the point of view of a plastic bottle, kids can understand the concept of recycling with a more personal connection.
• The diary entries are humorous yet point out the ecological significance behind each product and the resources used to make it.
• Helps children to understand what happens to plastic products after they have been recycled.

Recycle Week 2021 Activities

Through fun recycled art projects, hands-on recycling activities and engaging books teaching about ways we can save the planet, children will understand the importance of recycling and its impact on climate change.