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Persia Castellani
In Recycling

International Day For The Eradication Of Poverty

Impoverished young Afghani boy smiling

October 17th marks International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, with this year celebrating it’s 27th anniversary of the declaration by the General Assembly.

Our vision is to witness a world where children no longer find themselves in poverty or need protection from it. Our focus is children connected to the street or slum. Our approach to achieving this is to work with community organisations such as Fairplay.

Local organisations better understand the needs and challenges faced by the communities in their vicinity. In the Payatas slum, for example, Fairplay is acutely aware of the problems that face children every day, and works tirelessly to offer help and support to them. Programmes such as daily free school meals not only help improve child health through better nutrition, but also help take the financial pressure off parents giving them one less meal to provide every day.

Ultimately, programmes such as those offered by Fairplay mean local children have somewhere to go other than the street. Passing their time in a more productive manner, and one that provides a way out of poverty.

The work we do is just one of thousands of drops in the ocean that represents the effort of the global charitable sector. This is a sector that is quietly working towards the eradication of poverty, be that on a global or local level. That quiet determination is fuelled by the goodwill and trust of the public that continues to support every step of the sector’s journey to date.

This International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is one to commemorate and renew our commitment to doing all we can to break the vicious cycle that children in slum communities find themselves in. Here’s some of the things you can do with us to help move things closer to eradicating poverty.

  1. Make a donation. Just £10 could provide a child with a meal in school every day for a month.
  2. Volunteer to do some fundraising for us. Put on a charity fashion show, a music event, or a football match and raise funds to support the children we work with.
  3. Donate your old stuff. Books, gadgets, clothes, old currency. We can take most of what usually gets chucked out. We can even take your old car!
  4. Shop with Amazon Smile. You shop with Amazon as normal but by nominating Poverty Child as your chosen charity we receive a donation from them worth 0.5% of your total spend.

Finally, let’s ensure that on this day the voices of the impoverished are heard. Look out for #EndPoverty on your social channels and join the conversation by liking, sharing and commenting on the issues that matter to you.

Persia Castellani
In Recycling

International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction

Abandoned red Audi car contributing to unfolding environmental disaster

Don’t let your car be part of the disaster

To support the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, I wanted to follow up on Megan’s blog “How To Recycle Your Car” as landfills and scrap yards are in serious crisis.

David Palmer-Jones, CEO of Suez, tells us in a Future Build article (2014) that our landfill waste is an ‘impending crisis caused by a combination of Brexit, a Chinese crackdown on importing recyclable material and the government’s failure to commit to clear policy that would help deliver new waste facilities’.

Euro News (2019) tells us the damage we’re also causing is outside the UK. Ghana’s capital Accra is one of ‘Africa’s biggest electronic waste scrapyards’ and it’s filled with the ‘remnants of Europe’s discarded electronic devices.’ Europe sends millions of tonnes of scrap across each year where e-trash is burnt to extract valuable metals. This is now considered one of the world’s most polluted sites where studies have shown ‘burning of waste exposes them to toxins that can cause heart disease, strokes and lung cancer.’

This not only effects the environment in a major way, but has increased Landfill Taxes to ‘encourage the exploration of sustainable alternatives for disposing of waste.’ (Red Industries, 2019)

Current Rate from 12th March 2018 New Rate from 20th March 2019
Standard Rated Waste £88.95 per tonne £91.35 per tonne
Lower Rated Waste £2.80 per tonne £2.90 per tonne

You can help create a sustainable alternative when disposing of your old car by taking a few simple steps:

  1. Complete the online form with your car’s details.
  2. Let us know whether or not your car is in working condition, has any missing parts, the damage that affects it, and whether your car is accessible.
  3. Our recycling partner will be in touch to arrange a collection time convenient to you.

Recycling your vehicle is easy and convenient for you. Any profit we make in the process goes directly to our charity providing slum and street based youth with opportunities to improve their lives for the better.

Donate your old car now.

References:

  1. Future Build (2014) We’re Running Out Of Landfill And Brexit Could Make It Worse [online] https://www.futurebuild.co.uk/industry-news/were-running-out-of-landfill-and-brexit-could-make-it-worse-says-new-report
  2. Red Industries (2019) Lanfill Tax Increase [online]  https://www.redindustries.co.uk/landfill-tax-increase-2019/
  3. Euro News (2019) Europe’s electronic waste ends up at this toxic landfill in Ghana [online] https://www.euronews.com/2019/07/27/europe-s-electronic-waste-ends-up-at-this-toxic-landfill-in-ghana
  4. Poverty Child (2019) Donate Your Car [online] https://povertychild.org/donate-your-car/
Persia Castellani
In Recycling

Summer Cleanse – But What To Do With Your Old Stuff?

Old Stuff

Who said it has to be Spring for a clean out? After all, 2019 is the year of minimalism. But here’s the twist – what do you do with it all? Poverty Child’s simple and sustainable solution means you can sell it all from your phone.

I’ve challenged Daniel, Silva, Aline and Ben to use the app Buengo (a virtual charity shop) to sell their unwanted items from their smartphones this month where the proceeds of their sale will ‘directly fund our work’ – without having to fund staff or venues! 

The candidates:

DanielAs a student, Daniel loves a minimalist lifestyle so he doesn’t have to move a ton of stuff between university and home, even though he loves his gaming consoles and does need a wardrobe refresh every once in a while.

He tries to take his preloved clothes to charity shops, and sell or donate his electronics too, a couple of months ago he took a bag of clothes to the Red Cross charity shop, but with time as a constant pressure with work and studies, the journey isn’t always an option.

He’ll be using Buengo to sell his clothes and electronics – so we’ll catch up with him in a month to see how he’s getting on. Wish him luck! 😉 

SilvaSilva is a culprit of online shopping, then missing return deadlines ending up with a wardrobe of random bits which may never see daylight again. 

She has GoPro gadgets and brand new clothes in her wardrobe she’s been planning on selling on eBay for months. She also has several items including a ginormous lampshade she never returned to Amazon.

Although she wants to donate these bits to charity shops she hasn’t had the time to take them in the last 6 months, but she IS about to try Buengo *exciting*. Watch this space to see what she’s managed to sell, how easy the process was and how she’s contributed to Poverty Child.

BenBen definitely hoards some old clothes he could get rid of. He has 2 phones and an endless supply of charging cables he no longer needs. He’s a strong believer in donating unwanted goods to a moral cause, but although he gave some unwanted clothes to a charity about 4 months ago, he couldn’t say this was a regular occurrence since between work and the rest of everything that happens in life it never becomes a priority.

He’s accepted the challenge with open arms and will give us his update next month!

AlineAline has always found it hard to resist a sale or bargain, so consequently ended up with a wardrobe of clothes and books she’s intended to sell but puts it off on a weekly basis. She says that knowing the sooner she puts something on Buengo the sooner she could be helping children at the Fairplay Academy attend school is a huge incentive for her to get on and sell her unwanted pieces from her overflowing wardrobe.

Buengo App: https://povertychild.org/lifestyle-giving/virtual-charity-shop/

How to sell your preloved possessions?

We use charity shop app Buengo where anyone can sell their items from their smartphone and support our mission to improve life for street and slum connected children. 

You can download Buengo from your app store and upload your items for sale without having to get them to a physical store – it’s really simple. 

Click to download the app on your iPhone or Android.

Here are a couple of things you can sell by way of a reminder:

The proceeds from the sales of these items will ultimately fund our work. Projects such as providing regular ‘sport, nutrition and social groups’ to ‘100 children’ by helping fund the ‘nutrition aspect of this project: the initiative to provide free healthy and nutritious meals to children after the twice-weekly football sessions’, Poverty Child (2019).

And why shouldn’t you just throw your unwanted bits away?

  •  According to The Times in  2018, ‘Britons binned clothes worth £12.5 billion last year as the rise of “throwaway” fashion led to 300,000 tonnes of textiles ending up in landfill’ with the average of every ‘household wasted clothes with a purchase value of almost £500’,The Times (2018). Imagine what The Fairplay For All Foundation could have done with even half that cash! 
  •  According to The Guardian ‘a record amount of electrical and electronic waste was discarded’ in 2014, with ‘41.8m tonnes’ of e-waste such as ‘fridges, washing machines and other domestic appliances’ being dumped. In  basic terms that’s ‘1.15m heavy trucks, forming a line 23,000km (14,300 miles) long’,The Guardian (2015). Not only is this an environmental disaster, but some old appliances would be in good enough condition to be sent to a new home rather than the dump. 

Here are some benefits of selling your preloved possessions:

  1. Benefits you – it’s a fast and simple solution to clearing out your clutter. ☑
  2. Benefits it’s new owner – people love paying less for second hand treasures ☑
  3. Benefits children from misfortunate backgrounds ☑
  4. Benefits the environment by keeping them out the junk yard ☑

References:

Poverty Child (2019) Our Work [online] https://povertychild.org/our-work/ 

Poverty Child (2019) 100 children project Archives – Poverty Child [online]

https://povertychild.org/tag/100-children-project 

The Times (2018) Clothes worth £12.5bn are thrown in bin [online] https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/clothes-worth-12-5bn-are-thrown-in-bin-b8rqfrcg2 

The Guardian (2015) World’s mountain of electrical waste reaches new peak of 42m tonnes [online] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/apr/19/worlds-mountain-of-electrical-waste-reaches-new-peak-of-42m-tonnes 

 

Megan
In Recycling

4 Reasons To Recycle With Poverty Child

4 brightly coloured recycling bins giving people reasons to recycle

Recycling is a great way to do your bit for the environment. It’s also a great way to declutter, and therefore increase your productivity, and feel better in your home or workspace. But, recycling with Poverty Child does more. Not only do you reap these benefits, but you also get to make a difference to children subject to poverty in the developing world. You don’t even have to make a cash donation directly from your pocket. The unwanted goods you send to us generate funds for our projects. Making a difference has never been easier. If you need a clear out, want to declutter, or simply want to join us in creating change, here’s a few reasons to recycle with us:

1.   It’s incredibly easy to recycle

By using our recycling initiative, you can donate a wide range of unwanted goods. You can clear out your home, or even your workspace, and donate most of the unwanted items you stumble across. We accept stamps, gadgets, clothes, currency, jewellery, ink cartridges, and cars. Of course, some items are worth more than others, but in our mission to save children in the developing world from the cycle of poverty, we are grateful for anything you can donate. Every penny that is generated from your recycled goods can contribute towards making a big difference.

Not only can you recycle many items with us but getting the goods to us is a very easy process. If your goods weigh less than 10kg, you can send them to us using our recycle labels that you can request on our website. If they weigh over 10kg, we can arrange for your items to be collected at a convenient time for you. Recycling with Poverty Child can be just as easy, if not easier, than the process of ordinary recycling. Yet by using our initiative, not only are you contributing towards looking out for the environment, but you’re making a valuable contribution to our missions. Recycling with us is an easy way to clear out, raise money, and do something valuable for our environment.

2.   It’s the perfect way to declutter

Getting involved in our recycling initiative is the perfect way to declutter your space, whether that’s your work environment or your home. Decluttering has become a popular phenomenon recently, especially with the interest in Marie Kondo and her Netflix series. So, we’ve made it easy for you to declutter and raise funds for our projects at the same time. You could even team up with friends, family, colleagues, or neighbourhoods to organise a big clear-out. The more people that take part, the more unwanted goods there’ll be. Then, the more funds we will raise to continue our mission to provide life-changing support to vulnerable children.

Decluttering with our programme doesn’t just help those children or the environment – it also helps you. Clearing your space of unwanted items will help you to feel cleansed and refreshed. It has been proven that decluttering can improve your focus on goals, concentration, mood, creativity, and sleep quality. It’s also a perfect way to let go of the past if there’s items you still have from a chapter of your life you need to move on from. Evidently, it can improve your life and your productivity. If it’s about time you had a clear out, go for it – use our easy-to-use recycling initiative and feel the benefits. Not only will you feel good about clearing out, you’ll feel rewarded by doing so, knowing you’ve created valuable funds for our projects. You’ll be making a real difference.

Decluttering doesn’t have to be hard or tedious. We’ve created an article all about how to declutter your home in the most engaging way possible, with the help of Marie Kondo’s tips and tricks. Follow our steps and your space will be decluttered in no time.

3.  You can use us as your charity for programmes you’re taking part in

If you need to pick a charity for a programme you’re taking part in, you can use our recycling initiative to raise awareness, raise funds, and bring people together for a common purpose. You can take our recycling programme in whichever direction you like – you can get creative, or even competitive!

You can use our charity in the workplace if your company is looking to support a charity in some way. You can use us to promote a relevant cause, such as sustainability, or to support an annual awareness day. Whatever your reason, recycling in the workplace can help your colleagues declutter their space and improve their productivity. If corporate volunteering is possible, you may want to consider using our recycling initiative as your charity of choice. You can read more on our blog about working with us to recycle in the workplace.

If you’re a student, you may want to use Poverty Child for similar reasons like on awareness days and to promote a goal of the university. You could recycle within your accommodation or make it a university-wide project in which students bring their unwanted items to a collection point. Check out our suggestions on how to recycle as a student.

You can also use our recycling initiative as a part of the NCS programme. In phase three, you’re required to take on a social project. We can assist you with this if you were to select Poverty Child, providing you with any materials or guidance you may need. With our recycling initiative you’ll be helping your local community, vulnerable children, and the environment for phase three. You can read more about our ideas for phase three of National Citizen Service.

4.   You get to make a positive impact on the lives of vulnerable children

We strive to give every child we work with recognition, nutrition, wellbeing, and security. We achieve this by providing safe spaces and support including clinics, street schools, outreach services and foster care. The funds generated from your recycling may go towards these services, or the research and data collection that is needed to inform our projects. Either way, by recycling with us you get to be a part of our missions, making a real difference to the lives of many children that need help.

We give the maximum amount of funds possible directly to the projects and offer complete transparency on where these funds go. That’s why our website is full of articles dedicated to the details of our projects and the children we help. In relation to our recycling initiative in particular, you can find out more about how your recycling helps.

 

Megan
In Recycling

How Your Recycling Helps Poverty Child

Poverty Child prides itself on the fact that 95% of your donations is used to further our mission. We are always grateful for and humbled by your generosity- you help to transform our projects from ideas into lifelines for impoverished children. We want you to know how your recycling helps our cause.

Your recycling helps give flexibility.

The funds that are generated from your recycled goods are unrestricted income. This means funds are pooled to become available for where the most need is.  The needs of the children we help change over time. So it gives us the flexibility to invest the funds in response to their changing needs, either by adapting our existing projects or creating new ones if necessary.  As well as this, it allows us to make up for any shortfalls of funds that we have. For example, we used recycling income to make up for a funding shortfall in our project with Fairplay For All Foundation. It was your recycling efforts that allowed the project to then reach its full potential.

Your recycling helps to fund vital research.

It is different to secure funding for research and data collection. Donors appear to be more willing to provide tangible aid such as food and clothing. Yet, the research and the data for our projects is just as vital. Without this research, it would be hard to know what the children need and how they can be helped. Our research is the foundation of our projects, enabling us to build relationships with the children that we find in the developing world. The funds from the recycling initiative contributes to this data collection. It helps us to build our projects based on crucial data. It is an extremely important starting point for many of our projects.

It’s a vital part of our fundraising strategy.

The income generated by recycling is relatively small, but that doesn’t mean to say it isn’t important. The programme allows us to diversify our income and therefore protect our projects, to some extent, against any drops in revenue. During times of economic and/or political uncertainty, people are more cautious about how and where they spend their earnings. As a result, donating to charity is often dropped from household budgets. Your recycling helps us protect our projects from fluctuating income in uncertain times.

Most importantly, your recycling helps slum and street children.

Aside from our different projects, our wider mission is to break the cycle of poverty for many children in the developing world. Whether your donations are funding our research, data collection, or tangible aid, they are contributing to this mission. Your time and efforts are helping us to make a real difference in the world. By getting involved with our initiative, your recycling is successfully changing lives.  Click the link to find out more about our work and our projects in developing countries.

Megan
In Recycling

5 Simple Steps For Decluttering Using KonMari

konmari method steps for decluttering and recycling

Whether it’s time for a spring clean, you’re moving house, or there’s too much clutter in your home, decluttering is always worthwhile. There’s nothing like a clutter-free home to leave you feeling organised and cleansed. It seems that decluttering has recently become quite the phenomenon. With Marie Kondo’s growing fame, more people than ever seem enthusiastic about decluttering. If your house is in need of a declutter, we can help. Consider this “Poverty Child meets KonMari”. Below are 5 simple steps for decluttering your home. These are based on the guidance of Marie Kondo and her KonMari method for tidying. Once you have established which items you no longer want to keep, you can recycle them with us. Creating a tidy and organised space has never been so simple.

Commit yourself to the task of decluttering

This is Marie Kondo’s first rule of decluttering. Before starting what can seem like the tedious task of tidying, get yourself into a positive mindset. Remind yourself of your motivation for decluttering. As the KonMari method emphasises, imagine your ideal lifestyle. Let this guide you. A decluttered home will bring you better organisation, increased productivity and less stress. If you’re using the KonMari method for the first time, keep reminding yourself that it will be interesting and inspiring to try something new. Remember that all the goods you decide to get rid of will be recycled with us. This will help to fund our projects in developing countries. You’ll have played a part in helping vulnerable children that are subject to a life in slums and on the streets.

Tidy by category, not by location

Part of the KonMari method is that you tidy according to the category of your items, not by their location. Don’t tidy by room, tidy by category. One of Marie Kondo’s rules is that you stick to the order. You start with clothes, then books, and then move on to papers, miscellaneous items and sentimental items. Gather your items into these categories before sorting through them.

Ask yourself, “does this item bring me joy?”

One of Marie Kondo’s main principles for the KonMari method is that you focus on what brings you joy. You should think about what you can keep instead of what you can discard. Once you have your categories sorted, go through each item and ask “does this item bring me any joy?” If your answer is yes, put the item into a pile of things to keep. If it no longer sparks joy, put the item in a pile of belongings to send to our recycling initiative. You can check out all the items we can accept under the “donate” tab on our website. We are happy to accept broken items, so don’t worry if things aren’t working as they should be.

Contact us for postage materials

If your stuff weighs 10kg or more altogether, you can request a recycling sack from us. Alternatively, if your items weigh less than this, you can ask us for an address label. We’ll email this out to you for posting your unwanted goods to us.

Send your unwanted goods to us

After all the hard work and commitment that has gone into your decluttering, it’s time to get rid of your unwanted items! If you’ve used the address label, you’ll post them out to us. If you’ve used the recycling sacks from us, we can arrange for a courier to collect the items you are kindly donating. All this information is available on our website.

Once you’ve decluttered your home, be proud of the effort you have put into creating a more organised space. You’ll soon begin to feel the benefits of having an organised and decluttered home to live in. Remember, this process isn’t just helping you and anybody else that shares your home. You’re helping us to fund our projects. These projects aim to break the vicious cycle of poverty street children are trapped in. Your donated items will help us to make a real difference.

Megan
In Recycling

Ideas For Phase 3 Of National Citizen Service (NCS)

NCS phase 3 teamwork for community project

You’ve conquered the activities your five-day NCS residential had thrown your way. You’ve mastered several life skills in phase 2. Now, you’re looking for a way to make an impact in your community. Phase 3 is all about making a difference. By using our recycling initiative as your social project, you’ll be doing nothing short of that. You will be helping your local community to declutter and come together for a common cause. But, your impact will reach even further than your local community. You will be helping to tackle the vicious poverty cycle that many vulnerable children are in. With the skills you’ve gained and our support, your community project will make a real difference.

About Our Initiative

Our recycling initiative is a unique and creative way to improve the lives of slum and street children. The items that we collect are resold for cash to fund our projects. We work to give poor children opportunities to better their lives and break the cycle of poverty. We accept many items from clothes, jewellery, unwanted gadgets and even old cars! There’s more information on the items we can collect under the “donate” tab on our website.

Some Ideas For Your Social Project

Organise a recycling event in your local community

This could be item specific or to recycle many items. For example, you could collect old mobile phones within your local community. Or, you could ask for people to bring any recyclable goods to a specific collection point. Make sure you promote your event with leaflets and posters. Tell your community what they can recycle and where they need to take their goods to. There’s more information on our website about each specific item and the conditions they must be in.

Work with local businesses to recycle items

Local businesses are always disposing of items, such as ink cartridges and laptops. These might not be of any value to the business anymore, but they are to our recycling initiative. Contact local businesses and encourage them to recycle their goods for your community project. It’s also a great way to impress employers with your effort and project management!

Get creative!

You could rally a team together and head down to your local city centre to encourage people to recycle with you. To draw attention to your project, you could get creative and dress up as a recycling item, such as a mobile phone!

Get competitive!

You could also run a competition within your community to see who can recycle the most. It could be on large competition between individuals. Or, you could run competitions between households, estates, and businesses that take part!

We’ll support your social project

Here at Poverty Child we have valuable experience in running fundraising projects. We can offer our guidance to help you execute yours. We can provide materials you need such as collection boxes and posters if necessary. We’ll also be on hand to help with the collection of your donations. You can request a recycling sack from us if you expect your donations to weigh over 10kg altogether. We’ll then arrange to collect your donations from you, free of charge.

If you’re thinking of using our recycling initiative for your NCS community project, we’d love to hear from you. Be sure to get in touch to tell us about your project, and we’ll be happy to help you in any way we can.

Megan
In Recycling

5 Ways To Recycle At Work

Work colleagues discussing recycling

Work recycling is one of the most convenient ways to do your bit for the environment and minimise the effects of the landfill crisis. Better still, by recycling with Poverty Child, your actions can have an even greater impact. Recycling will allow you to declutter, and therefore provides benefits for your personal space. As well as this, it will benefit the vulnerable children we support, that are at risk of exploitation and predatory behaviour. Through collective action, we can make a real difference. This is why work is the ideal place to recycle with our initiative.

There are so many benefits for yourself, others, and the environment by recycling at work. You can recycle your unwanted goods to declutter your workspace, encouraging your colleagues to join you. The money generated from your unwanted goods will help to fund our projects that change the lives of many children. Here are some ideas for how to use our recycling initiative at work:

1. Choose us as the charity you support.

If your organisation is looking for a charity to support, why not suggest Poverty Child? Supporting a charity is a great way to bring colleagues together for a common cause. By recycling for us, you’ll help to fund our projects. As a result, you’ll play a vital role in improving the lives of slum and street children. Improvements that are crucial to helping them find a way out of the poverty they face every day. You and your colleagues can unite and help us to create real change. But, using our recycling initiative to fundraise doesn’t just benefit these children. It also benefits you, as explained below.

2. For the benefit of employees.

Recycling your unwanted goods also means that you will feel the benefits too. By recycling goods from your workplace, you’ll be creating a tidy and clear space to work from. This has been shown to reduce stress and improve creativity. Above all, it helps your workspace to look professional. You can also recycle items from your home and encourage your colleagues to do the same. Decluttering your personal spaces can improve your health, concentration, and sleep. Decluttering is an easy way to improve your performance at work!

3. To promote an aim or mission of your company.

You could use our recycling initiative to promote your company’s goals. For example, if you have made a pledge to become more environmentally friendly, improve sustainability, or become more socially responsible, using our recycling initiative is a step in the right direction. It’s a great way to get all your colleagues involved and bring them together to achieve your goal. You can all be a part of the efforts to succeed in the mission you are aiming to accomplish.

4. To mark international awareness days.

Whether you’re looking to promote a goal, or make the workplace a better space to work, you can use international awareness days to promote your aim and strengthen your message. To mark the occasion, you could even hold a competition to see which individual or team can recycle the most. Here are some examples of great opportunities to recycle with us:

5. For corporate volunteering.

If your company allows you to take time off to volunteer with a charity, you could choose Poverty Child. Whilst volunteering with us, you could encourage your community to recycle for us. You could make it your very own project, picking up new transferrable skills along the way. You could decide on a collection point for the goods and promote the initiative in whichever way you feel is necessary. Volunteering with us will allow you to make a difference to the lives of many children in underdeveloped areas. As well as this, you’ll be helping your community to declutter and feel better! It’s a chance to be a part of our story and our mission and make a real difference beyond your workplace.

Recycling with us couldn’t be easier. We can collect your donations from you if they weigh 10kg or more in total. If they weigh less, you can use an address label to send them to us. The more people that are willing to get involved, the bigger the difference we can make. So, be sure to promote our recycling initiative in your workplace through bulletins, noticeboards, and emails.

You can recycle many items with us, from both your home and your workplace. This includes items from clothes, jewellery, ink cartridges, and even your old cars! All the items we can accept are available to view under the “donate” tab on our website.

Megan
In Recycling

5 Easy Ways To Recycle As A Student

University student thinking about recycling

Your voice, as a student, has the power to make a real difference. This isn’t limited to life on campus either. With our recycling initiative, you can make a real difference to the lives of vulnerable children. Not only this, but you’ll be doing your bit for the environment too – something we’re frequently encouraged to do. Yet whilst living busy and hectic lives, it can often seem difficult to do. But, our initiative is convenient and easy to use. It’s the ideal way to do your bit for the environment, and for slum and street children in developing countries, whilst living as a student. Here are some ways to get recycling as a student with our initiative.

Declutter your accommodation

Round up your housemates and get rid of your unwanted goods! Whether it’s time for a spring clean or a clear-out to free up some space, it’s always a good time to declutter. After all, a tidy space makes a tidy mind! Decluttering is also said to improve creativity, concentration, and quality of sleep. Decluttering for our cause will not only help the environment and street children, but it will also help your wellbeing.

Run a competition to promote our cause

Running a recycling competition is a great way to get people involved. This could be across accommodation, schools/faculties or even houses if your institution has a house system. The winning group would be the ones that have recycled the most. There’s a competitive streak in all of us, and so this is bound to encourage fellow students to take part! The more students that take part, the more we will be able to make a difference in the developing world. And not only will you be promoting our cause, you’ll be doing your bit for the environment too.

Use Poverty Child as your selected charity during Rag Week

Rag week is the ideal time to use our recycling initiative as one of your fundraisers. You could even combine this idea with the one above. A fundraising event is the ideal way to declutter, bring people together, and promote sustainability all in one! Get in touch with the relevant members of staff or your student council to make it happen.

Use our initiative on special dates

There are many international awareness days that promote similar causes to those that Poverty Child promotes. Our recycling initiative could be used as a way to fundraise on these days. For example, it could be a competition you hold, or a promotion for decluttering and sustainability. Here are some examples of awareness days you could fundraise on:

Use our initiative to promote sustainable living

Our fundraising initiative doesn’t just help children from deprived backgrounds. It can also be used to promote sustainable living. This may be a part of your institution’s goal or mission. Therefore, it helps you strengthen the message and reach your institution’s goal too, as well as ours. Recycling is one element that makes up sustainable living. This makes our recycling initiative the ideal way to practice and promote it.

How to spread the word

Now that you have the fundraising ideas, here are some ideas for promoting them!

  • If you’re a member of a student council, or know somebody that is, use our recycling initiative as a discussion point in a meeting. If you’re looking for fundraising ideas or ways to promote sustainable living, be sure to mention and promote our recycling programme.
  • You could create posters and leaflets to promote your fundraiser. Make sure it’s clear which items we are happy to accept, so your fellow students know what they can donate. Details about these items are below.
  • You could feature your fundraising event on a newsletter, noticeboard, or bulletin. If you don’t have access to edit these, ask a member of staff if they’d be willing to help and put it on for you.
  • Create a visible and accessible collection point for donated items. Make sure it’s clear to see. Don’t forget to give details of the location in your advertisements!

How recycling with Poverty Child works

We’re happy to accept many items from you. These include clothes, jewellery, ink cartridges, and unwanted gadgets. The full range of items we accept can be viewed under the “donate” tab on our website. If your donations weigh over 10kg altogether, you can request a recycling sack from us. Once you’ve fundraised for us, we’ll collect your donations from you, free of charge. If your donations weigh less than 10kg, you can request an address label to post your items to us.

Megan
In Recycling

How to Recycle Gold & Silver Jewellery

Recycling gold, silver and jewellery

We all have gold and silver jewellery hidden away in cupboards, drawers, and boxes that is no longer used. Whether it’s broken or out of fashion, at one time it meant something to us and for that reason it’s hard to part with. Yet, there is still a way of putting your unwanted jewellery to use without the guilt of letting it go. Donating it to Poverty Child.

Our jewellery recycling initiative can give your old jewellery purpose once more. It can raise funds to support our work with vulnerable children living on the streets or in slums. Every gold or silver ring, trinket, or earring can make a difference, no matter how small. A little can indeed go a long way in changing someone’s life.

For example, our recent work in Philippines is only possible thanks to your recycling. Your unwanted items are helping to improve the nutrition of children in the slum of Payatas. Some of the most at-risk children. Learn more about our work with Fairplay, and why working with street children is so important.

Recycling with us couldn’t be easier. We accept all jewellery in any condition, whether silver, gold or bejewelled. All you have to do is request a postage label. Then, use the address label to post your jewellery to us. Our recycling partner raises funds with your donated jewellery. Funds that we use to further our charitable mission.

You can even get your family, friends and work colleagues involved. The more recycling you do the more children we can help.

If you’re having a clear out or a spring clean, send your unwanted gold and silver jewellery to us. Your decluttering can make a huge difference to the children we work with. Children who are otherwise ignored by the wider society.

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