Here are some ideas for reusing and recycling to have an environmentally friendly Christmas 1 Buy second hand Christmas decorations There's no need to miss out on a fabulous Christmas display in your home. There are plenty of second hand Christmas decorations available at bargain prices - try a local charity shop or visit the Crow Recycling Scrapstore to reuse instead of buying new. 2 Wrap presents in fabric or paper that can be recycled Fabric squares make great reusable wrapping. For paper wrapping avoid metallic paper which is difficult to recycle. Or why not use plain brown paper or newspaper then add some colourful reusable touches such as fabric ribbon and buttons? Brown paper is available at 30 pence per metre from the Crow Recycling Scrapstore along with fabric, ribbon and buttons. 3 Use last year's Christmas cards as this year's present labels. The cards with plenty of snow on them have the best white spaces for writing. 4 Send e mailed cards or make your own.  Crow Recycling has card, paper and envelopes donated by organisations for reuse as an alternative to recycling. Come and buy some and make your own. 5 Give presents which won't need to be sent to landfill when they're finished with Give homemade sweets or biscuits in a reused container, send an offer to do something nice for someone or make a charity donation in someone's name as a gift. Or how about buying someone a year's membership of the Crow Recycling Scrapstore? The cost is £10. 6 Buy fewer or cheaper presents Families with older children and adults could opt for secret Santas so they only buy one present each - there are even apps and websites which [...]

  Have a crafty and recycled Christmas this year with the Crow Scrapstore Christmas shop. The Christmas shop is open from now until 12 noon on Friday December 21 for materials to create beautiful cards, gift wrap, gift tags and decorations. People are invited to visit and be inspired by the coloured card, coloured paper, ribbon, fabric, stickers and decorations. The stock is at bargain prices such as two pence for an A4 sheet of paper and three pence for an A4 sheet of card. A4 white envelopes are free with any purchase while stocks last. There is also a good selection of second hand value for money decorations for those who want to reuse and recycle this Christmas. There is tinsel and there are baubles and rolls of wrapping paper. For those who need inspiration there are ideas about how to give your present wrapping the wow factor and ideas about how to make bows out of scrap paper. Scrapstore development worker Lauren Dunn said: “Make Christmas special by creating unique gift wrap, tags and cards. We have materials and ideas at the Crow Scrapstore Christmas shop.” When it comes to posting parcels Crow can help with padded brown envelopes for £1. Brown paper for packing is available by the metre. The Crow Recycling Scrapstore sells donated waste materials to use for arts and crafts all year round. To shop at the Scrapstore people must become members which costs £10 per year. People are invited to browse then decide if they want to join and shop. The Scrap store is at the Crow Recycling base in Orchard House, Sparkbrook Street, Hillfields, Coventry, CV1 5LB. Opening times are Monday to Thursday 9.30am to 3pm and [...]

Members who can't visit the Scrapstore at the usual opening times are invited to  drop in on Saturday October 27. The Scrapstore is open from 11am to 1pm for bargain arts and craft materials. Among the bargains are pieces of coloured card, pieces of coloured paper, wool, fabric, cardboard tubes, wood, picture frames, ribbons, back copies of craft magazines, tiles and lots more. There will also be Halloween craft ideas. And there will be colouring and bracelet making for children. The Scrapstore is at Crow Recycling, Orchard House, Sparkbrook Street, Hillfields, Coventry, CV1 5LB.  

Reusing shredded paper For those who shred documents at home rather than using a commercial service such as Crow the question is what to do with shredded paper? Here are some ideas. If you have a garden soak it and then add it to your compost heap or bin. Paper is especially useful if you have lots of grass cuttings in your heap - it helps produce rich compost. Use it as animal bedding. Small amounts are perfect for a rabbit or guinea pig and are ready to compost when the hutch is cleaned out. Here at Crow we do this on a commercial scale with large loads of shredded paper compressed into 30kg bales popular with people who run animal care businesses. Shredded paper is great to use for packaging - help with good seller feedback by making sure the goods arrive in perfect condition.  

Recycle week September 24 - 30 2018 Recycle week is a good time to turn used drinks cans into cash. Crow Recycling in Coventry will pay for used drinks cans - the more the better. Crow Recycling may be able collect them depending on the location and amount or they can be dropped off at the charity's warehouse Orchard House, Sparkbrook Street, Hillfields, Coventry, CV1 5LB. Recycle week is organised by recycling charity WRAP to reduce waste. Another way to mark Recycle Week is to drop into the Crow Recycling Scrapstore and collect some waste materials to reuse for art and crafts. More information here.      

Here at Crow Recycling we offer work experience for secondary school aged pupils. Pupils can get a taste what's involved in collecting and processing materials for recycling such as office waste paper and drinks cans. They can find out what it's like to run a Scrapstore selling waste materials as art and craft supplies. They can also learn about the day to day running of an office as well as find out about the ins and outs of promoting a small organisation. Crow Recycling offers work experience to both mainstream and special needs pupils. Several Coventry schools and colleges already send pupils including the Corley Centre. For more information contact Crow Recycling on 024 7655 24444.

Coventry based artist  Val Hunt takes a fresh look at things people throw away when creating these artworks in her Coventry studio. They are created from throwaways such as drinks cans and plastic bottles. She  also volunteers as one of the trustees who keep Crow Recycling up and running.

Work experience is fantastic for life skills, making career decisions and improving employability. But teachers and lecturers in Coventry and Warwickshire working with special needs pupils and students sometimes struggle to find enough work experience placements. Crow Recycling has 33 years of experience offering work experience to pupils from local specials schools as well college students with disabilities. People on placement often have learning difficulties or autism. They help sort and shred paper collected as part of Crow’s commercial office waste paper and confidential shredding service. They also help sort and process aluminium cans ready for recycling and help with data inputting. Crow Recycling has some advice for organisations considering offering placements to special needs pupils and students. Special schools and colleges serving students with disabilities all have staff members responsible for work experience who will be able to discuss a possible placement. The pupil or student will visit before the placement begins with a school or college staff member. The visit is chance to make sure there is a good fit between the work experience candidate and the tasks they will be doing. It’s also chance to sort out any practical issues such as access to the building. Once the placement has begun the pupil or student will need a nominated staff member to be on hand to answer questions and act as mentor. That staff member will need to do their own job and be available to help the work experience person. Before the placement begins find out how much support the school or college will offer the young person. Some will send a teaching assistant for the first day or day and a half. Some have staff members with the young person [...]