Recycling Children

Okay, okay, as much as you might like to...DON'T recycle your children. But teaching them to recycle can be a whole lot of fun, and their ideas range from the mildly creative to the downright zany.

My son has become a recycling nazi. When he gets it into his head that it's "craft time!!!" it's very difficult to hold him back, even for a few minutes. When mommy is busy and can't get out the craft supplies immediately, where does he go? Straight to the garbage can.

Frozen juice containers, pizza boxes, cardboard coffee whitener cans, bubble packaging, fruit cups, all those little things that aren't accepted by our local recycling centre, he finds use for. (And never mind, mommy, about the yucky garbage that gets strewn about on the floor while he gathers his treasures!) Of course, many of these things get thrown into the kitchen sink with a demanding "Wash this please! I wanna do a craft!".

Have I created a monster? Well, yes and no. I'll admit I get a little annoyed when he throws the grimiest gunk right into my dishwater, but I'm also quite proud. And honestly, have you seen some of the amazing things people have made out of garbage? Everything from ripped up t-shirt rugs to juice bag slippers to egg carton art (and I don't mean the pre-school caterpillars...stuff you'd actually hang on your wall). So I bite my tongue as best I can, and ask:

"What do you think this wants to be?"

There are worse things...and I'm definitely the culprit in creating this mind set. We use old yogurt and dip containers to hold paint, glue, sparkles, beads...newspaper is given to my baby to shred (builds hand muscles in babies, they say), old shower curtains are used to cover surfaces where we're creating. Anything I can think of a use for, I keep. My son is just building on my knowledge base.

The next time your little ones are bored, send them straight to the trash can. Oh yeah, and for those who would like to add some education to the trash, let them sort your blue and gray boxes. Nobody makes a more complicated sorting game than the recycling bastards. :)