Teach Kids to Recycle

by Kristi Gaylord

Starting a recycling program in your home is a fun and effective way to teach kids of all ages the importance of protecting the environment. Children as young as two years old can learn to identify recyclable plastic containers by the numbers printed on their bottoms, and to take them, along with cans, paper, and cardboard, to the appropriate bins in your home. With a little patience and practice, each family member can do his or her part to create a more eco-friendly planet.  

Create a Recycling Center 

The first thing you’ll need to do to involve your children in your home’s recycling efforts is to set up an area to collect the recyclables. Purchase four inexpensive bins: one for plastics, one for aluminum cans, another for newspapers and magazines, and the last for glass containers. Take your children shopping for stickers to decorate each bin, and allow them to label the containers appropriately. Show your children what type of containers and objects belong in each bin, and instruct them how to clean out the items before placing them in the bin.  

Appoint a Recycling Captain 

If you have one child who expresses a great interest in the project, you might consider appointing that child the “recycling captain.” This child will help other family members organize the recyclables appropriately, answer any questions from younger family members, and make sure that items meant for the recycling bins don’t inadvertently end up in the trash.  

Teach the 1-2-3s of Recycling  

Americans currently recycle a mere 5% of the plastics produced in the United States. Most plastics are made from petroleum, an increasingly in-demand and finite resource, so it’s important to recycle as much plastic as your area allows. While the technology exists to recycle most types of plastic, many recycling centers only accept plastics with code numbers 1 and 2.  

For an older toddler or preschooler learning her numbers, identifying the “numbers in the arrows” on the bottoms of plastic containers is a fun exercise. First, call your city or town’s recycling authority to find out what plastic recycling codes it will accept. (Visit earth911.org/plastics/, enter your city or zip code along with your state to locate the recycling center closest to you.) Then, sit down with your child and ask her to find the number located inside the three arrows on various plastic containers. If it’s a number your center accepts, walk her over to the appropriate bin in your home recycling center, and instruct her where to place it. If it’s not, have her put it in the trash. 

Start a Recycling Project 

One of the best ways to further involve kids in environmentalism is to encourage them to start a recycling project within your community or at their school. Have your children create and hang up posters asking for neighborhood participation in an aluminum can recycling drive, and then donate the money to an environmental charity. The beauty company Aveda has in place a program to recycle plastic bottle caps, since most recycling centers do not accept them. Plastic bottle caps pollute the environment, litter beaches and waterways, and are ingested by birds and other wildlife who mistake them for food. Your children can organize a bottle cap recycling effort at their school, where students can bring in the plastic bottle tops they use at home, and your kids can bundle them up and mail them to Aveda. The company will them send the tops to their recycler where they’re made into new caps and containers for Aveda products. 

To participate in this project, email capcollection@aveda.com or call 1.877.AVEDA09.

Once your kids learn about the three Rs of environmentalism-Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle-they’ll jump at the chance to practice each of these activities every day. Creating a recycling center in your home is an educational way for kids to make their world a healthier and safer place for them to live.

Kristi Gaylord is a freelance writer and mother to a 23-month-old daughter. You can find her blogging at Interrupted Wanderlust. 

image courtesy scoll22