It’s Earth Month! Today I’m sharing How to Make Recycling FUN for Kids with tips and these adorable DIY Recycle Bins. This post is sponsored by PepsiCo Recycling. All opinions are my own
How to Make Recycling FUN for Kids + DIY Recycle Bins
There are days when I am just in awe of my 7-year-old son. He’s met and surpassed his reading goal for the year. He received the Citizenship Award for his class. He’s above grade level in all of his subjects. And lately, he’s been my little helper. Helping to empty the dishwasher, make his bed, and take out the trash are all on his list of daily chores. Maybe it’s the draw of buying yet another Lego set (the kid has goals!), but I also know that my son is just an amazing kid.
April is Earth Month, which is a great time for my little helper to learn more about loving our planet. Check out my tips to make recycling fun for kids, including this adorable tutorial for DIY Recycle Bins that match your home decor!
Make It a Game
Nothing brings out the smiles like a great game. To help get my children excited about recycling, we love lining up our plastic bottles for a little recycling bowling! Just line up your bottles and let your kids roll a ball to knock them down. After playing, be sure to drop your bottles off into your recycling bin. I’ll tell you what, I have NO problem getting my kids to put the bottles into the bins when I suggest our favorite clean-up game 🙂
Read About It
My kids LOVE their story books. There are days when I cannot pry them away from books (I know, proud mom over here!). So naturally, learning about recycling, the importance of conservation and taking care of our earth for Earth Day is easily soaked into their brains through a great story. Grab a great book from the library, head to the bookstore or download an enticing book for your little readers.
Personalize Recycle Bins
We recently upgraded to JUMBO sized recycle bins for curbside pick-up. And when I say jumbo, I mean both of my kids can stand up inside this thing. It’s huge. While I appreciate the size for all of our weekly recycleables, it’s a pretty hideous bin to have inside of the house. Wanting to create kid-friendly bins that also fit our home decor, I saw these clearance storage bins and wanted to “spruce” them up a bit. So we made these adorable bins for our living room cubby holes. Ready to make your own DIY Recycle Bins?
Here’s what you will need:
- Storage Bins (I found these on clearance – score!)
- Twine
- Chalkboard Tags
- Hot Glue
- Chalk
Directions:
Taking the twine, I wrapped the handles of my storage bins. I used hot glue to secure.
Use your chalkboard tags to write out what you want your bin to store – plastic, paper, cans, bottles, etc. Let your kids help you decide Use twine to attach your labels to your bins.
Then store in your cubby holes for your kids to fill! My kids LOVE running to the bins now that we have cute and handy bins inside our home.
Earn Rewards
There’s nothing like getting rewarded for doing a good deed! And what better way than with FREE rewards too! The Pepsico Recycle Rally is the perfect way to get your kids excited about recycling. This FREE nationwide recycling program provides great resources, incentives and smiles that directly benefits K-12 schools across the nation, all while helping our earth be a better place. What better place to learn about recycling and start healthy habits, right? Win-win!
By registering for the FREE Recycle Rally, your school will directly benefit with FREE activity ideas, lesson plans, printable certificates, and more to help promote recycling right at school. This is a great way to get everyone from students to teachers to administrators involved in a school-wide project. Over 2000+ schools have already participated in this campaign.
To help bring even more excitement to this campaign, the Recycle Rally offers frequent promotions for your school to earn prizes for doing simple acts towards recycling efforts. AND your school can also earn points in their personal online account to redeem for even more goodies like recycling bins, school supplies and more! There are prizes and rewards just waiting for your school to redeem. So let’s do this.
Sign up your school for FREE and join the efforts to recycle this Earth Month with the PepsiCo Recycle Rally.
Robin Masshole Mommy says
That is an awesome idea. What a great way to get kids involved in recycling!
Stacie @ Divine Lifestyle says
That’s such a great idea. I love how it helps the kids keep all the recycling straight and also keeps it looking nice.
MJ. L says
Awesome post! I love all these ideas and my kids would love to help be involved!
Pam says
I am all about recycling! I think it’s great to make it fun for kids and get them interested in helping the planet.
Anjanette Young says
Oh That is a great idea. Our kids love to recycle, but I run out of bins and I love what you did. Can I borrow that idea?
christie says
Absolutely, Anjanette! 🙂
Lindsey Paris says
Those bins are really pretty! Our service doesn’t require separating, so we have a large bin under the sink that gets dumped in the big box every few days.
Liz Mays says
What a great idea! We live near a recycling place so we should probably be doing much more of this.
Toni | BoulderLocavore says
We have a great city wide recycling program and they teach about it in school. So my kids have grown up with recycling as the norm and have visited the recycling center multiple times to see the products being recycled.
monica says
How fun for kids to take ownership of their own recycling! This sure beats our boring container in the kitchen!
Marcie W. says
These are great ideas, especially for young kids. We taught our children the importance of recycling at a very early age and now it has become a habit.
Tonya says
I need recycling bins for my big kids and husband! This is such a great idea and I have just the place to put it.
Nicole Escat says
Wow! What a great idea, so creative. I need this for my family. Thanks!
Brandy says
What a creative way to make recycling fun for kids. We recycle but use a cardboard box beside our trash bucket in kitchen. I will have to try to make something like this because it is less of an eye sore, such a beautiful idea!
Ann Bacciaglia says
This is a fantastic idea for recycling. I will have to get the supplies i need to maker this for my house.
Crystal says
Your recycling center turned out adorable. I don’t do enough sorting, but just deposit it all in the big recycling bin that our city picks up each week. It wouldn’t be hard with each type having it’s on spot.
Darlene Ysaguirre says
I always find the more information my kids on things the more excited they are to try. What a great fun way to get kids excited about saving the earth one plastic bottle at a time.
Veronica says
My son loves to recycle glass. He makes sure that I do
Seattle Travel Blogger says
Great ideas posted here for kids!
I like the approach you take on recycling and really can see this working – think I will share this with my niece.
Julie Fields says
Love the idea of using recycling for games
Cinny says
That’s such a great rally! We have recycling in our building but it’s so far away so we tend to stockpile for awhile