See how to make a simple Recycling Station at home to encourage your kids to recycle and help save the planet!
Happy Earth Day! What will you do to save our planet? Here is a simple idea: a recycling station at home!
Each country has its own ways to recycle items like plastics, tins, paper etc. In South Africa, there are a few ways to easily recycle. For instance, Mondi(a local paper produce company) has a free service that they offer where they give you an orange bag(called a Ronnie bag). On a certain day, you have to leave your paper and cardboard in the bag on your curb and they pick it up to recycle. This initiative is at schools too, where each child has a mini bag to fill and bring to a bin in the schoolyard.
Some people make a living going through trash cans to collect plastic bottles and exchanging them at the plastic factory for money. Certain glass bottles can be exchanged at local cafes or liquor stores for a small amount of money. The Return & Earn initiative in Australia is also an example.
At big supermarkets, you will find bins to place items in like plastic bags, batteries, cartridges etc. and they will dispose of them in a proper(and safe) way.
How to set up your home recycling station:
We only have these three, plastic bags, bottles and paper/cardboard bins at the moment, but will get more in time.
I’ve bought plastic clothes bins, because it is cheaper than trash cans, and lined them with refuse bags(or the Ronnie bag for the paper).
My then 4-year-old helped with the signs, looking for plastic bottles and cardboard items in the newspaper’s advertisements. This is a great activity for the kids. They help look for items that fit certain criteria(identifying and sorting skills used here, and cutting skills used when cutting the pictures), and then they will remember what items must go where when they have to sort the actual recyclables.
And of course, we keep some of the recyclables to craft with too! You will find these crafts on our Recycle & Create Pinterest Board!
You may like our post on ALLterNATIVE Learning’s site about Recycling in South Africa and there is a nice craft activity there too using a plastic bottle!
Join us to do your part for our planet too and make a recycling station at home!
What a lovely looking recycling station!
Thank you!
I love this, especially the signs! Cutting out pictures of what goes in each bin must have reinforced the whole recycling idea!
Exactly Emma!
I really like the fact that you have three separate bins for plastic bags, bottles, and cardboards. I think that having this in our home can also teach my kids about the importance of recycling and how their tiny actions can impact the environment. It might be a good idea to start implementing this next week and see how would they comply.