How can I reuse, upcycle or recycle synthetic England flags?

Our good friend Tim posted this question on Twitter yesterday:

Anyone have good craft ideas for a synthetic England Flag? There may be lots of them on the streets or landfills soon

There certainly will be! A4-ish size car ones, towel sized ones, super-sized ones… a whole lot of squeaky synthetic white fabric with a red cross on it — all of which will be instantly discarded as soon as the team are knocked out. (I’m speaking from experience about the disappearing – the photo was taken on our old estate by John during the last World Cup and they all disappeared the day after the losing match.)

Of course it would be great if everyone reduced – didn’t buy as many (if any) or kept them to reuse for future events rather than buying new each time but that doesn’t seem to happen.

So any reusing, upcycling and recycling suggestions?

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12 Responses to “How can I reuse, upcycle or recycle synthetic England flags?”


  1. Frame them and sell them as souvenirs of the World Cup.

  2. Calgary says:

    I have seen flags sewn into jackets and bags.

  3. Valerie says:

    Why not keep them and bring them out again on St George’s Day or the next big footie match?

  4. I just saw an ingenious use of them in a school play about Egypt today with a bundle of red fabric and St George’s flags to represent the pharoahs guts as they prepared the body for mummification, got a good laugh from the audience!

  5. Lauren says:

    You could dye a couple of them blue or green, then cut them up into their component parts and resew them into a union jack cushion cover (with backing for strength), which are in fashion at the moment

  6. Olia says:

    Turn hem into the rain ponchos.

  7. Stefanie says:

    Turn them into pillow covers and sell them on Etsy.

  8. kvc06 says:

    Hey
    Wow! Someone else who has concern 4 the squillions of flags flying!!(I’m not being totally over-sensitive!)
    Anyway,my best for”Doing” is to sew,sew,sew and make all these things in to Shopper Bags. Less plastic etc.Less waste too.
    Anyone concerned,take in the flags,do a little sew-job,hand back a snazzy shopper bag & a memento of footie dreams.
    Woohoo!!
    OR if I knew what flags were made of…perhaps these could be recycled.
    Am not sure what the plastic is on the “car flags”.
    And QUICK…b4 it’s all over!!

  9. Rob says:

    Posh toilet paper

  10. caroline says:

    Bunting for St Georges Day? I have some I got out of a skip at work and I was thinking of bunting. I’m not even English but I can’t stand to see things thrown away.

  11. Medeea says:

    I assume they are plastic.
    Thus, good for insulating a blanket and use it for picnics.
    Or for the reverse side of a throw for babies to play on.
    Good for the lining of a bag.
    Or simply make a reusable bag out of one or 2 flags.



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