Here, Scott Hawthorne from the waste management company SkipsAndBins.com outlines five fun and kid-friendly craft projects that will help to reduce how much household waste you send to landfill!
Many of us have been in lockdown with our children for a couple of months now, so it’s understandable if you feel like you’ve run out of ways to keep your little ones entertained. Another problem you might be contending with is an increase in how much waste your household is producing. Now that you’re spending all of your days and mealtimes at home, it’s likely your wheelie bins are filling up much more quickly than usual.
Have you thought about solving both of these problems by getting your kids involved in a zero-waste crafts session? You can use everything from empty plastic bottles to toilet roll tubes to create something fun and new! Here, I’ll be giving you five craft ideas that will keep your little ones happy, as well as reduce how much rubbish you’re sending to landfill at the moment.
Turn plastic bottle into sun catchers
We all know that we should be trying to use less plastic in our everyday lives, but it can be incredibly difficult to completely eliminate single-use plastic from your home — especially when you have children. But you can reduce how many plastic bottles you’re throwing away by repurposing them, and it’s very easy to turn them into beautiful sun catchers. These will look absolutely lovely in your garden.
Our Family Code has a great guide to creating recycled plastic water bottle sun catchers, which will walk you and your little ones through the process of making them!
Turn egg boxes into planters
If you would like to teach your kids about gardening, but you don’t have a lot of outdoor space, or you simply have a lot of egg cartons that you would like to repurpose, use them to create tiny planters! They can be decorated in a whole host of different ways, and they can be home to a whole host of different plants, from cress to low-maintenance succulents!
If this is something you would like to try out, Den Garden has a step-by-step guide to starting seeds in egg cartons, which also explains how to move your plants into larger pots when the time calls for it. This easy craft could leave you with some beautiful plants that you and your family can tend to for years!
Turn tins into reusable pots
You can never have too many storage pots: from cutlery, to craft supplies and even your family’s toothbrushes, there are always things that need organising. And it’s very easy to turn your old cans into lovely low-waste storage solutions. They can be painted, decorated with sequins, or even wrapped in string to give you your desired effect.
Of course, you can come up with your very own design, but Prima has a great guide to creating a unicorn pen pot out of a food tin, which is sure to give you a lot of inspiration.
Turn empty toilet roll tubes into bird feeders
Another way to teach your kids a bit more about nature while repurposing items that would otherwise end up in the bin is by using your empty toilet roll tubes to create bird feeders. This is incredibly easy to do, and could also help to encourage your little ones to spend more time outside, getting some fresh air.
It’s very easy to make a bird feeder in this way: all you need is a toilet roll tube, some peanut butter, and some bird seed. The Chaos and The Clutter has a wonderful tutorial that will talk you through getting everything just right.
Create collages from magazines
If you have a pile of magazines you just know you’ll never get around to reading, rather than throwing them straight in the recycling, why not let your kids turn them into collages? They could create characters, landscapes, or even abstract art pieces that will take pride of place on your fridge!
KidsActivities.com has a great guide to helping your kids put some beautiful collages together. You could let them go all out with their cutting and sticking, or encourage them to draw a scene that they can then add paper pieces into. The possibilities really are endless!
If you’ve run out of fun activities that will keep your kids entertained, and you’re tired of your bins always being full, these craft ideas can help to take the pressure off. And some of them could even give you some wonderful plants or even storage solutions that you can admire or use for years to come!
