This paper describes a community's attempts to raise the knowledge and awareness of environmental issues of early years pupils through the use of "Environmental Story Sacks". The results of the small scale evaluation, using a pre and post activity oral "cloze" exercise, showed that reception year pupils' response scores to questions about the process of waste management and recycling did, in fact, rise after using the activities provided by the sack. The authors make no attempt to generalise from these findings or make claims about the validity of the research in terms of the children's transferable understanding of environmental issues. However, by looking at what we know about young children's learning, the authors describe how the Environmental Story Sacks meet many of the requirements and could prove to be a useful tool in developing young children's knowledge about the importance of managing waste. (Contains 1 figure.)