6 Ways to Teach Your Kids About Recycling

One of the most serious problems we are faced with today is climate change. As global warming is already changing our world, it is of utmost importance to educate children on ways to reduce their carbon footprints and help make our planet a safer place for future generations.

If you have kids, now is the perfect time to start talking to them about current environmental issues and introduce them to preventive measures such as recycling.

1. Start the Conversation

It can be difficult for a young child to understand climate change and its effect on the environment. Kids may not know how to deal with information about natural disasters or the extinction of animal species, so you should probably avoid overwhelming them with such challenging topics. Instead, use language and terms they can easily understand.

2. Take the Conversation Outside

You may want to begin this conversation while you are outdoors while your children are enjoying the natural world around them. If you have a garden, show your child the basics of gardening, giving them child-friendly tools and other items to explore the surroundings. The better connection your child develops with nature at a young age, the more likely they will do their best to preserve it when they are older.

3. Make Recycling Bins

Once your child has built a bond with nature and understands how recycling can make a difference in the world, it is time to take action. Together, you and your child can make recycling bins for paper, plastic and glass. Let your child personalize the bins – they can decorate them with stickers or paint images of the materials that should go inside each. This will make the initial introduction to recycling more enjoyable.

4. Recycling Can Be Fun

There are many ways to use old paper or plastic to teach your kid that recycling can be fun. Turn your old plastic bottles and recyclable materials into toys or other useful household items, showing your child first-hand how old stuff can be reused over and over again. This is also a great opportunity to demonstrate that you don’t have to buy new things when with a little creativity you can make them on your own.

5. Develop a Rewards System

Set up goals for your child, with rewards each time they achieve one. This will further motivate your child to recycle. You can also play a game whenever you take the children shopping for groceries – encourage them to read product labels to find items whose packaging can be recycled. The more items they find, the greater the prize.

6. Adopt Eco-Friendly Habits

Teach your child how they can save water, electricity, and energy on a daily basis by turning off lights when leaving the room and water while brushing teeth. It is also crucial that you adopt these habits as well, as your child is more likely to imitate your behavior, especially at a very young age.

Call 123JUNK

When your children have collected enough items for recycling, call 123JUNK and watch your children dance with glee as one of our big red dump trucks arrives at the house. They’ll see how recycling works firsthand, and if they ask really nicely, one of our uniformed professional junk haulers might just take a moment to explain how 123JUNK is doing its part to save the environment with its three-pronged donate-recycle-dispose philosophy.

When you have items you no longer need or want, and live in the Virginia, Maryland or Washington D.C. area, call 123JUNK!