In the interests of promoting sustainability and joining the war on waste, it’s a good idea to recycle wherever possible. When recycling at home, be sure to get your kids involved and encourage them to adopt sustainable practices. One of the best ways to get your kids to practice regular recycling is to make the process as fun as possible, so we’ve come up with a few tips to make recycling around the home an exciting and educational experience.
Start early and lead by example
One of the best ways to get kids into a recycling mindset is to lead by example and expose them to your own recycling habits. Set up recycling bins where your children can see them and talk to them about the process whenever they observe you recycling e.g. “plastics go in the blue bin, paper in the green bin and metals or e-waste in the red.” Soon, your children will want to join in themselves to see if they can correctly select the right bin!
Convenience is key
The key to getting your kids into recycling is to make it as convenient as possible for them, so it’s a good idea to have several different bins throughout the house. For example, you may have marked recycling bins in the kitchen, one in the bathroom or toilet for old toilet rolls, and one in their bedroom for waste paper.
Turn it into a game
Matching recyclables to different coloured bins is just one of the many ways you can turn recycling into a fun game for your children. You may even want to expand on your recycling efforts by taking them outside the home, encouraging picking up litter in public parks, collecting aluminium cans, and even hiring or buying a metal detector for trips to the beach. Make little games out of each task by offering rewards for whoever collects the most recyclables.
Explain and educate
Of course, there is little point in getting your kids to recycle if they don’t understand why they’re doing it. Educate your children about the importance of recycling, along with how to reduce consumption and practice sustainability. You may even want to take them on a day trip to a local recycling plant, or a metal recycling facility so they can observe the recycling process.
If you’ve got scrap metal lying around the home, exchange it for cash with Metal Men Recycling (and feel free to bring your kids along for the experience). Metal Men Recycling gladly accept all kinds of ferrous and non-ferrous metals, including iron, steel, copper, aluminium, brass and more.
