You can take the time to do little things like recycling. Using fewer plastics, cleaning up your community, and even spreading awareness about how important it is to take care of our planet. One such small step is to reuse and recycle everyday plastic and paper items that would otherwise just end up straight in the trash. We have rounded up some great Earth Day crafts using recycled materials to get you inspired to find more uses for what you (in many cases) already have and turn that trash into treasure. Gather the kids and get easy recycled crafts this Earth Day!
Egg Planters
This Easter you probably got a few eggs filled with candy or toys that you can put to use for something else. Here is a great way to reuse those egg halves by turning them into planters that are both functional and super pretty.
Make Your Own Baskets
Learn how to make your own baskets using paper! It’s cute, functional, and best of all, you can reuse newspapers or magazines to make it.
Make Your Own Terrarium
Why not take those old plastic soda bottles and make your own terrarium? What’s a terrarium? Besides being a fun word to say, it’s actually a container that houses plants and soil. Check out this DIY project and create your own little rainforest world!
Superhero Cuffs
Everyone has toilet paper rolls in their house. Wouldn’t it be great to reuse those in a way that encourages fun, imaginative play? A great idea from Rising of the Geeklings is to turn those rolls into Superhero cuffs. You can battle evil forces while saving the planet!
Space Shuttles
If superheroes aren’t your thing, here’s another great craft using toilet paper rolls and turning them into space shuttles! Send your toy figures to another planet!
Jewelry
Recycling is always in fashion! You can reuse the soda can/pop tabs to create beautiful jewelry. Lots of ways to get creative with this one and share it with your friends.
Beautiful Butterflies
If you’ve got a spare phone book laying around, you probably realize you don’t use it as often as you think. This is a great way to make sure that giant book gets put to good use. Once you’ve read a magazine, you can turn the pages into beautiful butterflies to hang on your wall.
Composting
Earthworms are pretty awesome for the planet. Did you know these slimy little guys help plants grow by turning recyclable trash and compost (food scraps) into healthy soil nutrients? If you have always wanted to begin composting, but didn’t really know where to begin, here is a small-scale version you can do with the kids.
We hope these activities and crafts have inspired you to think of creative ways to recycle and reuse everyday items before throwing them away in the trash. We encourage you to take such small simple steps to try and recycle as much as you can. Make everyday day an Earth Day!
If you want to learn more about and get involved with recycling efforts in your community, check out:
https://onetreeplanted.org/pages/earth-day
https://www.epa.gov/recycle/how-do-i-recycle-common-recyclables
Check out Smore Magazine for ages 8+.
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