What Is It?

The Johannesburg International Flower Show is about to bring joy to Jozi with this beautiful flower show.

They are calling everyone who loves nature, sculpting and landscaping to come and enjoy the diversity of this show.

You don't want to miss this.

When Is It?

Wednesday, 30 October 2019 - Sunday, 03 November 2019.

Wed & Thurs: 10:00  - 19:00.

Fri & Sat: 10:00 - 21:00.

Sun: 10:00 - 18:00.

Where Is It?

Waterfall City, Mall of Africa, Johannesburg, Gauteng.

How Much Is It?

Tickets are R75 - R195 per person, get your ticket here.

For More Information

For more information, click here.

Brand South Africa Is Making A Difference

Playing its part and making a difference in South African communities, Brand South Africa, the official marketing agency of the country, donated Princess D menstrual cups to Grade 6 and 7 girl learners at Palm Ridge Primary School as part of its Mandela Day community engagements.

An initiative started by Brand South Africa Play Your Part Ambassador, Shamila Ramjawan and co-owned by South African Olympic gold medallist, Caster Semenya, the Princess D cup is a green alternative to disposable tampons and pads.

The cup is a reusable, eco-friendly and cost-effective way for girls and women to manage their cycles in a hygienic way, with total privacy, safety and dignity and is equivalent to 3 000 sanitary pads and lasts for up to 10 years.

“Women and especially young girls in South Africa are the most vulnerable members of our community and an initiative like this needs our support,” says Brand South Africa Acting CMO, Sithembile Ntombela.

“Although Mandela Day is there for us to contribute to our communities, it’s this spirit of Ubuntu, that we as South Africans, need to take forward throughout the year to make a difference in the lives of those who need it most. After all, playing our part is the South African way of success. This engagement is one of the ways we can do that,” concludes Ntombela.

For More Information

For more information on Brand South Africa, visit www.brandsouthafrica.com.

Don't forget to give them a like or follow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to stay in loop with their latest updates.

For more information on Play Your Part, visit www.playyourpart.co.za, or like Play Your Part on Facebook or follow @PlayYourPart on Twitter.

So, you want a cleaner environment? You're sick of seeing streets lined with trash, hearing stories of animals suffocating on plastic and don't care for the mess you see in public spaces everyday? You've decided it's time to care for the environment. To do this, you've stopped buying plastic bags, you have a hemp bag with steel straws in your handbag, you bought a reusable water bottle and your favourite coffee shop uses those biodegradable coffee cups. You've got two of Rs, reduce and reuse, sorted. But now for the recycling. We have found the best recycling organisations to make recycling a breeze.

Plastic

Recycling plastic has become necessary in recent years. This is because plastic can take up to 1000 years to decompose. Despite this fact, plastic is still found in almost all our day-to-day items, such as plastic bags, sandwich bags, Tupperware, water bottles, packaging, even chewing gum is made out of plastic. Plastic can also be tricky to recycle because there are so many different types of plastic and because a lot of packaging is made from several materials. Most supermarkets have switched to recyclable bags and now have an option for paper ones, too. However, this just isn't doing enough. Apart from reducing our use of single-use plastic, we also need to make an effort to recycle our plastic. Here are some organisations that can assist:

Petco: Petco specialises in the recycling of PET plastic, the type of plastic that is used for bottles, jars and containers. They take these items and use them to make fibre for pillows and duvets, fruit trays and new bottles. Petco has many drop-off sites around Joburg, which you can find here.

Owl Rescue: Owl Rescue, based in the North West, use old bottles to make owl houses, bat houses and bee hives. They do not benefit from this great initiative but do it simply because they care about the environment. You can purchase a bag from them where you can store your own bottles or even collect bottles from your family, friends and colleagues. They will come and collect the plastic free of charge. You can order a bag here.

Paper

Paper recycling is one of the most established areas of recycling in South Africa. Recycled paper can be used to make newspaper, cardboard and even egg cartons. Regular paper, old magazines and books can all be recycled so that more trees don't need to be cut down.

Mpact Recycling: This recycling company collects 630 000 tonnes of paper a year, which gets processed into cartonboard and container board. Mpact has designated drop-offs zones where you can leave your used paper. They will then fetch your recycling material from this site. Find your closest drop-off zone here. 

Glass

Melting down crushed glass uses much less resources than making glass from scratch and is, therefore, cheaper and better for the environment. Melted glass can be used to make many items, such as new glasses and glass fibre. What many people don't realise is that glass is one of the longest lasting items on this list - taking about 1 million years to disintegrate.

The Glass Recycling Company: This company has 4 017 glass banks across the country where you can drop off your glass for recycling. They will then recycle it, which creates jobs, reduces our carbon footprint and clears up the landfills. Find a glass bank close to you here.

Metal

Metal can take anywhere between 50 - 500 years to break down, depending on what type of metal it is. It is also a lot cheaper and requires less resources to recycle metal rather than processing new metal. So, recycling your metal should be a no-brainer. The most common house-hold metal comes in the form of bottle caps, lids, foil and cans. Here is how you can recycle your metal:

SA Metal: This company won't help with small household pieces of metal. They will, however, pay you for your scrap metal and then recycle it. So, if you're looking to get rid of an old car, fridge, washing machine, pool pump, fencing or even some old tools, contact them to recycle it for you.

Whole Earth: Whole Earth is a great recycling initiative for families and businesses. They provide you with a bag, you fill it and they come fetch it. You don't even need to sort your recycling items. Not only do they recycle cans and other metal, they also recycle glass, paper, plastic and electrical waste. Get your recycling bag here.

There are many other items that should be recycled or disposed of in a correct manner. These include:

Oil: Old car oil can't just be thrown down the basin as it will contaminate the water supply. For safe disposal of old oil, contact the Rose Foundation.

Batteries: Batteries are another item that can't just be thrown in the garbage. Although the chemicals no longer react in a battery once it has died, the chemicals are still present. All batteries should be disposed of correctly so that they do not harm anyone. You can take all your old batteries with you the next time you go to your favourite Joburg shopping centre. Most shopping centres have bins especially for old batteries.

Light Bulbs: These are another difficult item to recycle because they are so fragile and are made of several different materials. Luckily, shopping centres have bins for these, too. If you can't find a bin, head on over to your local Woolworths.

Electronics: These are difficult to recycle due to the many parts, including batteries. Most shopping centres have electronic disposal bins or you can head on over to Jackson's Real Food Market, where you can recycle your old cell phones.

Quilling

Quilling is the art of rolling and folding strips of paper and gluing them together to form creative designs. The resulting art is a colourful and vibrant 3D art work. This is a great way to use up any paper you have lying around whether it is from magazines, coloured paper scraps of left over scrapbooking paper. Simply draw an outline of a design on a piece of cardboard, cut your paper into strips, roll the paper into circles, glue the edge of the paper down so that it does not unravel and stick the circle of paper onto your cardboard design. The Spruce Crafts has some gorgeous quilling ideas for beginners.

Mosaics

We have all seen the pretty mosaic tables made from broken tiles. But there is no reason that mosaics arts and crafts should be limited to tiles. Some magnificent pieces can be made from materials you have lying around your house like beads, stones, glass, bottle caps and even straws. Simply break your chosen medium into different sizes and arrange into a pattern of your choice and glue with an appropriate adhesive. Check out Craftionary for some inspiration.

Weaving

This hobby traditionally uses yarn or thread to form objects like fabric and baskets. But weaving can be a very diverse hobby depending on what materials you choose to use. Weaving can be done with fabric ribbons, paper, plastic and even wire. Weaving is a great way to reuse plastic bags to make something that won't clog our oceans. Simply cut the plastic bags into ribbons and weave away. Check out WeaveZine for a tutorial on how to replace yarn with plastic for your weaving projects.

Scrapbooking

This one is all in the name. Scrapbooking uses scraps in a creative way to beautify precious memories like photographs, letters and cards. The method involves framing memorabilia with various arts and crafts objects like buttons, sea shells, beads and stickers. You can even decorate your projects with some of your weaving and quilling projects or make a mosaic. This is a lovely craft that can use up left overs from other crafts or anything you find around your house such as paper clips, pressed leaves and flowers from your garden or cut outs of old cards, magazines and wrapping paper. Better Homes & Gardens will inspire you to get scrapbooking.

Modelling Clay

Modelling clay can be a fun way to create amazing pieces. The only limit to what you can create is that of your imagination. This is a relatively easy hobby to master as it only requires making a shape out of clay, allowing it to dry and then adding some colour. You can easily make your own air drying clay out of old newspaper, cardboard or egg cartons, water, and glue. Make a base shape out of old jars, cardboard and even foil. Creative Mom, our inspiration for these crafts, has many ideas and tips on her Youtube Channel.