Activities,

5 Easy Recycling Projects For Kids At Home (Part 1)

Nov 19, 2021 | Activities | 0 Comments | 188

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle- we have all been brought up with these 3 golden nuggets of wisdom, but the importance of this saying has become more pronounced in the last decade with climate change making our bio-diversity more and more vulnerable to global warming. Recycling can be a tricky business especially for our young kids who may have read about it in school but have no idea how to actually implement it in their daily lives. Recycling projects can be your kid’s way of nurturing lifelong sustainable habits that can go a long way to reduce our individual carbon footprint, and perhaps the only thing levels this project will be increasing is bonding with your kids! 

Here are some projects that they can work on:

Recycle Old Broken Crayons- A great way to reduce waste is to look for signs at home and what better material than broken plastic crayons. The solution to broken crayons at home is usually “let’s buy a new pack!” But we often ignore the huge amount of waste we can cut by just making use of crayons that we have. Bonus hack- you won’t be tripping on these crayons anymore! Crush the crayons and sort them into a particular color group, like blues and reds together or yellows and purples together and place them in a silicon mold. Heat in the oven till they are melted and let them cool and harden a bit. A great way to make this interesting and adorable is to get a bunny-shaped silicon mold to have your own recycled bunny crayons! 

Recycled Fashion- Have a tank top that usually sits in the back of your kid’s wardrobe, hardly worn while they clamor for new clothes? Well, it is probably a good time to tell you that the clothing industry not only generates a lot of waste for landfills but also uses millions of tons of water for producing their clothes, making recycling a really neat option for clothes. Are your teens constantly asking for a crop top to wear with jeans? Simply get an old tank top, pencil on a square at the back of the top, cut it. On the front make a straight line from top to bottom, cut along the line you have made, and you have a wrap-around crop top ready to go. Just tie the loose ends any way you like, and you have a sleep top made from your wardrobe, just watch this video to get an exact idea! 

Repurposed Candle Holders and Warmers For Cups- Using plastic bags has never been more creative. You can use the leftover plastic bags of different colors to create this fun little art project at home. Cut the plastic into long equal strips that can wrap around a paper cup. Begin with wrapping the surface of the paper cup with food paper and tape it. Next, layer this with the plastic that you have and make sure to cover the length and breadth of the cup. Repeat another food paper layer and flatten this layer, by ironing this paper after you have wrapped this layer, what it will do is that it will help your project stay more coherent and will reduce crinkling of the plastic, make sure to be safe while handling an iron. It does have to be too hot, just warm enough to press the paper in and seal it all around the cup. Flip the cup upside down and repeat the same process to seal in the flaying edges. Once this is done, simply remove the cup and food paper from the plastic wrapping and you have got a perfect plastic warmer for your pen stand or candle jars!

Observe and Learn- A great recycling project is right there, live in nature! Make your kids understand the need to recycle because of varying decomposition periods. For example, take a piece of leaf, and a piece of plastic and keep it in two separate jars on the table. Over a period of a few weeks, ask your kids to observe what happens to the leaf and plastic, ask them to pen down their observations, and for younger kids they can also draw their observations. Seeing how quickly the leaf decomposed in comparison to the plastic which would be dumped in a landfill anyway, will help them understand how important recycling really is!  

Decorate With (Reused) Plastic- Wanting to revamp your child’s room? Instead of opting to buy new stuff and wasting a lot in packaging, make some beautiful plastic flowers and recycled glass bottles for decor. Simply cut open the bottoms of the plastic bottles, these curved edges can be your petals, and paint using acrylic colors. Pom poms can be stuck in the middle to act as buds and place them all in a recycled glass bottle which can also be jazzed up with some glass paint, and you have simple, pretty, and adorable flowers for your room. Disclaimer-no flowers were harmed for this craft!