WAIT! Don’t throw out old supplies – recycle them!
With the end of the school year quickly approaching, I’m sure you have started to clean out your classroom, organize your materials and get rid of anything that is broken or dried out. But before you throw anything into the garbage, check out different ways that you can recycle old art supplies:
Crayola ColorCycle – Send any brand of used, plastic markers (including dry erase and highlighters) to Crayola and they will repurpose them. Just register your school at crayola.com/colorcycle, pack the markers in a box, and print out a shipping label (Crayola pays for all shipping charges).
The Crayon Initiative – Donate your broken and unwanted crayons and the Crayon Initiative will remanufacture them and donate them to hospitals, art programs and children’s organizations. thecrayoninitiative.org/
TerraCycle – A free recycling program for used writing instruments. They’ll accept pens, markers, mechanical pencils, highlighters, sharpies and any caps. They also have a few tutorials on their site for repurposing the products into bracelets and lampshades. Sign up or check out the tutorials here: terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/writing-instruments-brigade-r
Save the scraps for future projects – There are a ton of great ideas and lesson plans available on making art from recycled materials:
- Make a jump rope out of marker caps, like Mama’s Little Muse
- Use scrap paper to make cut paper art, like Suzy’s Artsy-Craftsy Sitcom
- Follow TinkerLab’s lead and give your student’s the creative freedom to make an art sculpture from a variety of materials
All of these ideas are a great way to teach your student’s about being eco-friendly and could easily become a school-wide initiative.
