March - Re-using Materials

What is reusing and how can we reuse?

Reusing is when people use something more than once. It helps conserve energy and resources, like recycling. Some ways many people reuse is bringing their own bags to grocery stores, which saves plastic bags. Sometimes when people get plastic bags from grocery stores they reuse them in their trashcans, or use them to store things. People also reuse bottles and cartons for gardening or other purposes.

Reusable Materials and Activities:

Milk/Juice Cartons → Bird Feeders

Cereal Boxes → Book Holders

Newspaper → Paper Mache

Plastic Food Containers → Tupperware/Leftovers

Coffee Cans → Containers for Hardware (Nails, Screws, etc.)

Glass Jars → Fish Bowl

Newspaper and Paper Mache: Turn old newspaper into stripes of paper to be used for paper mache crafts. All you need is paper mache paste and an object to mold!

Why do we need to re-use newspaper? Paper is created from wood, which come from trees. Trees are a limited resource; the more we recycle/re-use paper, the more trees we save. Also, trees are invaluable to human life. Humans need oxygen and release carbon dioxide; trees release oxygen and need carbon dioxide aka we need each other to survive.

Plastic Food Containers as Tupperware: Instead of throwing away or recycling a food container (butter, yogurt, sour cream containers, etc.) re-use them for leftovers. Plastic containers are also great for plants or to hold your arts and crafts materials!

Why re-use plastic food containers? Plastic is made from oil, a limited resource which the world is slowly running out of (not necessarily true but whatever). The more plastic we re-use, the less oil we need to create plastic. Re-using plastic preserves fossil fuels.

Coffee Cans and Hardware: Re-use metal coffee cans for use on your tool bench. Coffee cans make great containers for nails and screws!

Why recycle metal? Metal comes from natural elements found in the world (periodic table lesson?) that are limited and sometime rare. Metal is always re-useable and should be used as such. Re-using metal preserves these natural elements and conserves them for future generations.

Glass Jars and Fish Bowl: Turn an old glass pickle jar (a big one!) into a fish bowl for a goldfish. ALTERNATIVE: Turn a glass jar into a container for pens and pencils on your desk!

Why recycle glass? Glass has a very long decomposition cycle (millions of years) that could up end sitting in a landfill with no use. Glass can be recycled/re-used many times ex. Glass bottle that is recycled will be re-used for a new product within 30 days.

Encourage kids to think of other objects they can reuse at home and come up with fun and creative ways to find new uses for things!