Up-cycling and Recycling

Up-cycled Notebook Workshop

During this workshop we discuss a range of green issues in the home, at school, and in a global context. With the aid of an interactive presentation, we visit an award-winning building, the Earthship, which is powered by renewable energy and is built from recycled materials.

After exploring some of the key issues involved, we examine a range of a diverse range of recycled and up-cycled objects and materials from around the world. We then get hands on and make a visually unique up-cycled notebook from old maps paper and card.

Eco Fish Workshop

When carelessly discarded plastic reaches our seas, it poses a threat to the animals that live there and depend on the oceans for food. To a dolphin, a floating plastic bag looks like a jellyfish and small pieces of floating plastic look like fish to seabirds. Drifting nets entangle birds, fish and mammals, making it difficult to move or eat. As our consumption of plastic mounts, so too does the danger to marine life.



After exploring the issues through an interactive presentation on the subject of marine litter and looking at single use plastic and their alternatives. Each pupil will then be invited to decorate a cork fish with colourful recycled scales they have made to bring awareness to the problem of plastic in our oceans. This highlights how we can all play a part in supporting a thriving ocean ecosystem. The fish create eye-catching artworks which can be taken home or displayed in school to spread awareness about this important issue.

Earthship – Climate Change Workshop

Over a period of four years Green Up Your Act worked with the Low Carbon Trust organising school visits, providing environmental workshops and tours of the award winning Brighton Earthship. The design of the Earthship building contributes to mitigating climate change by embracing sustainable design principles and reducing their environmental impact.

The Earthship reduces waste by making use of materials like old tyres, glass bottles, and cans in their construction. This lowers the demand for new materials and reduces the carbon footprint associated with manufacturing and transportation. In addition to recycled materials, local, natural resources such as earth, clay, and timber are used to minimise the environmental impact of resource extraction. The building relies on renewable energy sources like solar panels and wind turbines for electricity. This eliminates the need for grid electricity from fossil fuels, cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions.

Harvested rainwater is used throughout the building including in the greenhouse, where residents can grow their own food year-round. This reduces the carbon footprint associated with food transportation, promotes local, organic food production.

Energy efficiency is achieved through being designed to maximise solar gain in the winter and minimise it in the summer. They use natural heating and cooling methods, reducing reliance on fossil fuels and lowering carbon emissions.

After exploring these features in more detail through using an inspiring interactive presentation and video clips, pupils will be given the opportunity to create a unique recycled case study book. Pupils will select images of the building to label in their case study book, highlighting inspiring technology or features. The book can then be used for documenting the many curriculum subjects coved in this exciting and informative workshop.