This task was a bit of an experiment after we read about Tub2Pub, a recycling campaign run by Greene King Pubs to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support and recycle plastics. It sounded like a great idea so we hatched a plan...

One of our GoodGymers put out a call for local residents to leave out their empty tubs for us to gather up and take to the nearest pub collection point.

We are talking Heroes, Celebrations, Quality Street, Roses, and cream crackers - the tubs that fill supermarket shelves in the run up to Christmas. It was a bit of a gamble that people would still have them so long after the festive season, and we set out not really knowing if there would be any waiting for us!

It wasn't a good start - no tubs in the first couple of roads. But then we spotted the first one and gradually accumulated more.

In the end we handed over a stack of about 25 tubs at the pub, having also enjoyed a brisk walk covering about 5km.

The pubs send the tubs for recycling. They are shredded and when the Tub2Pub plastic is sold, the money goes to Macmillan Cancer Support.

That's an hour of our evening spent combining social exercise 🚶‍♂️🚶‍♀️, fresh air, helping the planet ♻️ and an amazing charity 💚. What's not to like?

Next year we'll set things up earlier and hope to collect even more.

This morning we joined the Friends of Lesnes Abbey and Woods (FOLAW) for their monthly conservation session in the ancient woodland that forms a gorgeous green backdrop to the abbey ruins.

Sarah, Johnny and Manish (along with his little one!) came from volunteering (and running 🏃) at the adjacent junior parkrun. Sunday double good-deeding at its best!

We also welcomed Jinling to her very first GoodGym task 🥳.

Marc from FOLAW told us about a suspiciously straight line of trees discovered by the park ranger, the alignment suggesting it might have been an ancient hedge. To help uncover its story, our task was to clear rampant ivy from one side and cut back beastly brambles on the other. You could say we were helping the ranger see the wood for the trees 😉.

Our fearless team of GoodGymers took on the brambles. With loppers and shears, we cut back the branches, then dug in (literally!) with forks to wrestle out the stubborn roots.

Despite the rain we stayed busy and by the time we wrapped up we'd revealed a good section of the tree line. What a sense of achievement!

With perfect timing, the rain stopped as we packed away the tools, so we headed to Chestnuts café to carry on chatting over a drink and a KitKat before heading home.

Huge well done to Jinling on completing your first good deed - a brilliant GG debut 🌟. And it was lovely to have our smallest helper along, getting his very first taste of GoodGym and nature conservation too 💚💪.

We'll be back again for this session next month - sign up here. But before then there are plenty more opportunities to get involved in your local community with GoodGym Bexley.