Recycle Week!

Now in its 12th year, we're right in the middle of Recycle Week! The theme this year is "Recycling around the home". Just having a think about the products you buy and have in your home is the first step to efficient recycling. You can always head over to Recycle Now and simply search for an item to find out how to dispose of it correctly, and if it can be recycled.

At Ellie Ellie, we fly the flag to re-design, re-cycle and re-love. Here are some of the easily recycled materials that are used to make some of our beautiful eco-friendly products!

Wool  - Our versatile Check Recycled Wool Blanket Rugs are made from recycled welsh wool, and have so many different uses, from picnics at the park to getting cosy in front of the fire at home. They are individually spun to create a variety of different designs, so there's a colour to suit everyone!

Glass - The UK currently recycles 50% of glass containers like jars and bottles - once they are crushed and melted, they're molded into brand new ones! We have a whole collection of recycled glassware for your home, including tumblers, mugs and milk bottles!

Plastic - One of the most used and popular materials. It's important we pop it all in our recycling bins to be sorted, shredded, and used again and again! Our Recycled Lunch Box and Jumbo Storage bags are made from recycled plastic, come in a range of prints, and fold flat for easy storing!

Be sure to take a look at Recycle Now's website to find out what you can recycle locally and at home, and help you achieve a sustainable lifestyle!

www.ellieellie.co.uk

1001 Little Ways to save our Planet!

As you may know, we are big advocates or recycling and reusing (with many of our products being recycled themselves). One of our books in our Ellie Ellie is this little gem: '1001 little ways to save our planet'! 

Some of the brilliant tips inside include: 

- Get Loose: Next time you're in the fruit and vegetable section of your supermarket, put fruit and vegetables into your basket loose rather than automatically reaching for a plastic bag. If you really need one, keep it and reuse it next time. 

- Unplug your Equipment: If your electrical equipment doesn't have a sleep function (not that this is not the same as standby, which uses energy), make sure you turn it off and unplug it when it's not in use. 

- Peg a Wooden Line: For eco-friendly outdoor clothes' drying, make sure you use wooden pegs (clothes pins) and not plastic ones. 

- Draught a Plan: To prevent draughts coming in through external doors, buy a fabric wadding-stuffed draught excluder that lies across the bottom of the doorframe and prevents wind from coming in underneath! 

These are such small steps you could make for a much greener planet, if you do something small each day we can work to create a much more eco-friendly world! 

Have you made any small changes to make the world a greener place? 

Recycle Week is here!

We shared these great facts last year on recycling and as it's recycle week this week, we thought we would have a recap on the benefits of recycling. During recycle week see how much of your household waste and cardboard, plastic and glass you can recycle, once you start it will become second nature to do your recycling every week!

At Ellie Ellie, we fly the flag for redesign, recycle and relove, making sure all our products promote a responsible and sentimental lifestyle. We insure all our products fit within our ethos, with our recycled jumbo bags, lunch box bags and rugs being our top recycled products. Our jumbo bags and lunch box bags are made from recycled plastic bottles and our rugs are made from recycled wool.

A lot of people wonder what their recycled plastics and glass gets turned into, here is an interesting table showing exactly how your recycling is used!

Happy Recycle Week!

Our Favourite Pins this Month!

I don't know about you but we love Pinterest at Ellie Ellie, it is such a great place to find inspiration and our Pinterest boards include some great product ideas, recycling ideas and our own gifts that we have pinned.

Here are some of the best pins we've found this month, featuring great ideas for upcycling and redesigning everyday things into something else. All these pins are on our Flying the Flag to Redesign board. 

What do you like pinning on Pinterest?

Find Ellie Ellie on Pinterest!

www.ellieellie.co.uk 

Postal Bag Origami

We are always thinking of ways to re-use the materials we use in the office so that we can limit the impact on the environment of throwing rubbish away. Since introducing our jolly new postal bags to send out our orders in we have played around with origami and the result is a lovely Ellie Ellie boat!

Our postal bags can be recycled, but if you are up for a fun activity you can make an origami boat or hat! We are on hand to help you have a go at origami, and save the planet by recycling our new postal bags!

How to make an origami boat (that actually floats) Yipee!

1. Begin by cutting our postal bags so you have one rectangle piece (you can make two boats with both sides as well)

2. Fold the rectangle piece in half

3. Partially fold it again, which will make a crease near the top. This helps line up the corners

4. Fold down the top left and right corner

5. Fold each edge of the paper upwards, and open it up into a hat

6. To continue making the boat, bring the corners of the hat brim towards each other, the edges of the brim will be pushed forward (your squashing the hat into a square)

7. Take one lower corner of the square and fold it upwards, so the same to the other side

8. Now you have a folded triangle! Open up the folded triangle and bring the corners together, again you are squashing the triangle into a square

9. Pull the outer  corners of the square, one in each hand

10. Keep pulling to fully unfold your boat, staple the sides to keep in place!

We hope you've enjoyed creating your origami boat, the next time you receive your Ellie Ellie order you know what to do!

If origami doesn't float your boat, pop it in the recycling bin!

Have Fun!

Facts on Recycling