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Crafty ideas for recycling

February 18, 2008 at 2:03 pm

Instead of throwing your recyclable materials into the appropriate bin, why not use a bit of imagination and put them to good use in creating something new? If you have children, it can be an excellent way of keeping them occupied on a rainy day. It costs next to nothing and is a great way of making them environmentally aware.

There are all sorts of sites on the Internet devoted to ideas for crafts using recyclable materials, many of which allow you to post your own ideas.
You will find ideas on these sites for every occasion, from Valentine’s Day, Easter, Christmas, and even Chinese New Year. Some of the sites allow you to do a search depending on the occasion and level of difficulty.

The craft ideas are not of course confined to children, some of the more complicated ideas include making a lamp from a glass bottle. This involves using a drill to cut the glass, or alternatively burning a piece of string or heating a wire until it is red hot – definitely not one for the kids to tackle! Another idea is to hollow-out a hardback book for storing valuables whilst at home or travelling. This requires at least some adult assistance, due to the use of an extremely sharp knife. Full instructions can be found here.

Children can enjoy recycling everyday bits and pieces. Some simple ideas include:

CD’s – cover with felt and use as a coaster. Alternatively you could thread string through the hole and hang the CD from a tree. This will scare the birds away from your vegetable patch.

Plastic bottles – cut to size, cover with pretty fabric, lace or ribbon and use as a pot pourri holder. If you are not trying to scare the birds away from your garden using old CD’s, why not see if you can get them to nest. This can be done by cutting suitably sized openings high up on the sides of the bottle, then hanging the bottle from a tree.

Toilet or kitchen roll middles – cut to size to use as a napkin ring and decorate with acrylic paints, ribbon, raffia or lace.

Newspaper – make a paper hat and decorate using paint, glitter, sequins or whatever you have lying around.

Egg Boxes – paint or cover with paper and decorate before using as a handy storage solution for golf balls or jewellery.

Milk Cartons – another one for the birds! Cut holes in the opposite sides of a milk carton and paint with non-toxic paint. You could also add ice-lolly sticks for the roof. Make holes beneath the openings and put a length of wooden dowel through for a perch and you have an attractive bird feeder.

Before you start, make sure that you have a good supply of scissors, glue, scraps of fabric and any pretty sequins or ribbons for decorating your work. If you need papier mache for modelling don’t forget that this can be made very easily using flour, water and strips of torn up newspaper. For full details of how to make it see here.

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