This task started life as a bit of an experiment after we discovered Tub2Pub, a brilliant recycling campaign run by Greene King Pubs that raises money for Macmillan Cancer Support while giving plastic tubs a second life. We wanted to give it a go so we hatched a plan to turn it into a GoodGym group task.

One of our GoodGymers rallied the residents on a local development to leave empty tubs outside for us to collect and deliver to the nearest pub drop-off point.

We’re talking festive goodies here - Heroes, Celebrations, Quality Street, Roses and even the humble cream cracker tub - the kind that take over supermarket shelves in the run-up to Christmas. It did feel like a bit of a gamble though... would people still have them lurking in cupboards this long after the decorations came down? We set off not entirely sure if we’d find anything.

It wasn’t the most promising start. The first couple of roads were completely tub-free. Then we spotted our first lonely tub waiting patiently, and from there our collection slowly grew.

By the end of our mission, we happily delivered a tower of around 25 tubs to Ye Olde Black Horse pub, alongside clocking up a brisk and refreshing 5km walk.

The pub will send the tubs off to be recycled. Once shredded and the plastic is sold, the proceeds will go straight to Macmillan Cancer Support, turning empty chocolate tubs into real-life support for people living with cancer.

In just an hour we combined social exercise 🚶‍♂️🚶‍♀️, fresh air, helping the planet ♻️, and supporting an incredible charity 💚. A pretty great way to spend an evening if you ask us!

Next year, we’ll schedule the task for sooner after Christmas and aim higher, hopefully collecting even more tubs. Time to start saving those Celebrations containers!

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.