This month’s eco-tip is another way to teach your children to reuse. Instead of throwing away those old, broken crayons, keep them to make new fun-shaped crayons!

First, take off all paper around the crayons and separate by color (you could also mix colors but might end up with a lot of brown crayons!). Next, put them in an oven-proof container and melt them in a 200 degree oven for about ten minutes. Once they’ve all melted, pour the melted wax into little molds like those used for making candy, soaps, or candles (you can find these at craft or cooking supply stores). Or, you can just use a muffin tin.

Next, let them set (or freeze them for faster hardening), pop out of the mold, and color with your new, fun crayons! Your children will learn to make something new with what they already have instead of just throwing it away.

Another idea for reusing broken crayons is to peel the paper off of them and keep them for making rubbings. I always keep a bag of peeled, broken crayons around in case my children want to make leaf rubbings, bark rubbings, etc.

A lot of children today are familiar with the slogan “reduce, reuse, recycle” – I’ve heard it many times in children’s songs and programs like Bob the Builder. Besides just knowing the phrase however, it is more important for children to really understand what this means and how to implement the idea.

One idea I loved involving the “reduce” part of the equation comes from my friend Sally Baldwin, who came up with a creative idea for party favors for her 4-year old daughter’s birthday party. You have to admit, some party favors are full  of items that kids either don’t really use, or that they play with for 5 minutes before they’re discarded. For her daughter’s friends, Sally burned “party mix” CD’s with favorite children’s songs that her daughter helped pick out. Then she made her own play dough (which her daughter helped with) making it extra fun by adding sparkles to the dough! She put clumps of the play dough in individual-sized baggies for each child. Both of these items can be used over and over again and brought continual enjoyment to my children. Not only did she avoid buying a bunch of stuff destined for landfill, but her daughter also got to participate in making thoughtful gifts for her friends.

Last month’s eco-tip discussed the importance of using non-disposable water bottles to reduce the amount of plastic in our landfills. To further this topic, this month’s eco-tip is on composting, another way to reduce the amount of garbage going to our local dumps.

Yard and food wastes make up approximately 30% of the waste stream in the US. Not only does composting divert a significant portion of your family’s garbage from landfill and water treatment facilities, it is a natural method of recycling organic materials and converting it into a product that is useful for gardening, landscaping, or even just house plants. Involving children in the process of composting and explaining why you do it provides a way of instilling in children a sense of environmental stewardship. Plus, it can be a great learning experience on a variety of levels. With composting, children can see the entire cycle, from “yucky” food scraps to something that is pleasant to handle and is good for the soil. Children who compost become aware of organic wastes as potential resources rather than just as something “gross” to be thrown away and forgotten. They learn through direct experience that they personally can make a difference and have a positive effect on the environment.

Worm bins are a popular form of composting with young children, who are fascinated with the worms’ feeding and reproductive habits.

Even if you do not have a garden of your own, and therefore do not have a need to make compost for your own use, you can still collect food scraps in a separate container that can be thrown in your “green bin”. This alone cuts down on a tremendous amount of garbage normally going to landfill!