Mandela Day is all about giving 67 minutes to make the earth a better place. Thousands of activities take place every year, but if you’ve left it a bit late, or don’t have a planned workplace activity, The Glass Recycling Company suggests some easy and practical ideas to help our environment this Mandela Day! They hope to inspire everyone to take a moment and give back to the environment.

Here are 7 easy things you can do this Mandela Day to make SA green again:

Plant an indigenous tree

Make an effort to green SA the simple way – plant a tree to encourage local wildlife, birds and insects. Consider planting the tree in a community without many trees.

Find a glass bank and recycle

It’s really easy to find a place where you can recycle your glass bottles and jars! Visit www.tgrc.co.za to find a recycling bank for your glass – there’s over 4 000 glass banks in South Africa.

Support a collector

If you don’t have time to drop off your recycling, be courteous and separate your recyclables from your food waste to help out the collectors who look for recyclables in your rubbish bin each week. You may also want to leave out a pair of gardening gloves to make their work a little easier.

Clean up a spruit, beach or roadside

Gather a group of likeminded individuals to spend a few hours picking up rubbish at a local beach, river course or littered spot in your neighbourhood.

Return your bottles

Take back your returnable glass bottles to your nearest retailer where you can receive a refund. Returnable bottles include certain spirit, soft drink and quart (750ml) beer bottles.

Support an environmental charity or wildlife rehabilitation organisation

Find a local wildlife rehabilitation centre, environmental charity or environmental education organisation and ask if they need volunteers. Though this can be hard work it can be very rewarding.

Encourage your workplace, complex, school or community centre to apply for a glass bank

If you’re unable to do any of the above activities during Mandela Month, encourage your friends and family to recycle and think twice about throwing away items that could easily be recycled! You can also encourage your complex, office park or school to apply for a glass bank where the community can recycle here.