How to Get Kids to Recycle
Recycling is more than an activity that can save you some money on your garbage collection bill -- it's also a way to help the environment. Recycling reduces greenhouse gas emissions and cuts down on the number of trees cut down, in addition to creating jobs. Your kids may not be ready to talk about job creation, but they can grasp the notion of helping create a better planet. To teach them about recycling, make the process fun and approach it from several different angles.
Instructions
Familiarize your kids with what's recyclable and what's not by checking out books from the library or showing them online games and mobile apps that help kids "sort" recyclables. "Parenting" magazine recommends the National Geographic Kids' "Recycle Roundup" game, WGBH's "Meet the Greens" interactive game, and "My Garbology," a game that awards points for sorting items into the right bin. Make posters together, featuring pictures of the items that are OK to go in certain bins. Then tape the posters to the sides of your recycling bins, or put them up on the wall in your recycling area. Your waste hauler may also have posters or stickers you can order, which often feature pictures of what's appropriate for each bin -- though the posters your children make themselves could help them remember better. Allow your child to collect the plastic and glass bottles that are returnable in many states, and let him keep the money. Show him how to check the label to find out whether the item is returnable for a deposit and where to store them, such as in a special bin or bag. Making money can be a great motivator. Make crafts together using recycled materials such as packaging -- which makes up approximately 30 percent of solid waste, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Better yet, save enough of a certain type of recyclable to make a craft with your child's class at school. Depending on the age of the kids, you might make caterpillars from egg cartons, robots from plastic yogurt containers, paper mache from newspapers or any other creative ideas you come up with. Encourage your child to come up with new ideas for things you can make. Teaching your children the value of reusing -- and reducing how much they use -- is perhaps an even more important lesson, since the truth is that a lot of materials that are sent for recycling are not actually turned into something new once they're sent to the waste collection facility, reminds environmental educator and author Dawn Wynne, in an article in "The Huffington Post." Help your child take the smaller recycling bins to the larger bins outside, where you both can see what's going into the larger bin. If you have little children, chances are they're not going to get the sorting right every time, so helping them put things into the right place a second time can encourage better habits.
