Recycling For Kids: How To Teach Your Children To Reduce, Reuse & Recycle!
Teaching your kids how to reduce, reuse and recycle is an important aspect of their childhood. If they adapt these habits at a young age it will be easy for them to understand what can and can’t be recycled in the future. This will also help the planet with a caring, eco-aware generation at the helm!
Make It A Game!
Turning chores into a game is a great way to get your children motivated! There are loads of different games you can use to get your kids recycling.
Our favourite is ‘Recycling Relay.’ This is done by:
collecting a pile of recyclable items, items that can be reused, and items that are headed to landfill.
Mark 3 boxes as reuse, recycle, and landfill.
Place the boxes in a line in this order. The reuse box should be closest and landfill furthest away, (this is to indicate the way we should think when it comes to reusing and recycling. Throwing the item away should always be a last resort).
The children (individually or as a team) must decide what can be done with each item. Can it be reused or made into something else? If not, is it recyclable? And if none of these apply, should it be sent to landfill?
To make it more of a race, set a time frame for the kids to complete the task.
At the end, ask them how they can reuse the items they have placed in the reuse box, confirm that the items in recycling and landfill do indeed belong there, and award and deduct points as you see fit.
By teaching children to make informed decisions about their waste in this manner, they become more aware of the recycling and reducing process. You could add an extra box marked ‘compost’ as an extra incentive.
Photo by Bernard Hermant on Unsplash.
Get Composting!
It’s all well and good to explain what composting is to a child, but actually seeing it happen is a great way to get the message across. If possible, set up a small compost box or bin outside your door. Ask your child to identify items that can be composted at any meal time etc. Add them to the the compost bin, and watch over time the natural process of the items breaking down, and turning to compost.
Crafts!
A great way to reuse materials when you have children in the house is to get crafting! Egg cartons, plastic bottles, paper towel and toilet roll holders, and cardboard boxes are all everyday items that can be turned into amazing craft projects! This guide shows you how to build a robot out of recycled materials!
Donate!
Kids seem to grow at an alarming speed so their clothes often don’t serve them for all that long. Teach your child that these items can be reused by others by donating any items that are in good condition to a local charity shop!
Photo by Paul Summers on Unsplash.