How to upcycle at home

Upcycling is a great way to reuse old materials in your home and help the environment. It can be very fun upcycling things that otherwise get discarded to landfill.

There's no better feeling that knowing you are helping shape the future by doing something great for the environment.

Here are just a few ways you can upcycle at home...

Tin cans

• Tins can be painted with almost all paint types, but the best is acrylic. Once you have decorated your tins they can be used as stilts using some string, but more popularly they make great plant pots. Try potting some easy to grow seeds and watch your new plants grow!

Plastic bottles

• Globally, we produce about 400 million tons of plastic waste yearly. Upcycling plastic is very important to protect our planet. Bottles can be a very easy and useful watering can. Poke some holes into the lid and fill with water, and you can decorate the bottle to make a pretty watering can for your plants.

•Another way you can upcycle plastic bottles is by turning them into bird feeders. Just poke some holes into the bottle with the lid on, and add some sticks through the bottom for the birds to perch themselves, and fill with seeds.

Glass jars

• Glass jars are often discarded once they are empty, but they can be used for so much more than than you may realise! They can be reused for storing pasta or nuts, or any dry food you buy in packages. You can buy sticky labels to label your new food storage jars.

•They can also be used as vases for flowers. Add a ribbon to decorate your new glass vase.