Upcycling: How to get wise, get sustainable and get sorted at home

From garden hacks to getting creative with waste and making an extra push to recycle more we can make changes that really add up

Pictured at the Repak Most Sorted Garden of Bord Bia Bloom 2025, TV host and food writer Donal Skehan and sustainable living advocate Eimear Hutchinson learns about waste segregation and what goes in the brown bin. Visit MyWaste.ie to discover how you can become a "bin champion" at home, work or play. Photography: Fintan Clarke, Creative Coalesce.

Recently, while the sun shone bright, I spent my days in the garden carefully taking the labels and tape off cardboard boxes before using them as a base to suppress weeds for new no-dig garden borders. 

This garden hack is not new, but more and more people are digging into the concept of reusing materials in the garden not only for workable DIY solutions but also as a conscious effort to use sustainable and eco-friendly workarounds.