Apart from the obvious – paper tins and glass – what other materials spring to mind when you think of recycled products? How about car tyres circuit boards and juice cartons for starters?! Amaze your kids with the myriad of recycled products that are available with a bit of searching – and maybe even inspire them to make their own one-off recycled pieces!
Sourcing Products
If you are serious about living an ecologically sound – or ‘green’ – lifestyle then you’ll probably be looking for recycled, fairly traded or organic products every time you shop, and getting your children to do the same. The marketing men have long since realised that ‘recycled’ is something of a buzz word on the high street and lots of products are now heavily promoted for their environmentally friendly or ‘green’ properties.
In the main, everyday items that we expect to be available in a recycled format, such as tissues, loo roll, plastic and paper goods are as easy to source and purchase as their less environmentally friendly counterparts, so if you are after bin bags, shopping bags, containers and writing paper, you are spoilt for choice. But what about the more unusual, or luxury items, or quirky, kooky present ideas?
Get Web Wise
The internet is alive with mail order companies specialising in fairly traded, sustainable and recycled products, made from everything from old discarded tyres to electrical components from computers and TVs. Why not set your kids the challenge of finding the strangest, wackiest recycled product online? A quick search on ‘unusual recycled products’ amassed an amazing 1,250,000 hits – so there’s a lot of stuff out there!
If you and your family are after a particular item, look for it by name along with ‘recycled’ in your search box – chances are, someone, somewhere will be making or supplying just what you are after!
Why Buy Recycled Goods?
Your children might wonder just why we need to bother buying recycled goods – surely the shops will still be full of shiny, brand new things, no matter how much recycled stuff is about? Encourage them to find out about the production processes of many everyday items and what happens to them when they are no longer required – finding out specifically how things are disposed of and the effect the waste has on the environment, wildlife and climate, will probably be all the encouragement they need to look for recycled alternatives!
Shopping Challenges
Set your kids a shopping challenge next time you go to the supermarket – armed with your usual list, see how much household stuff they can find that’s recycled – bin bags, toilet paper and stationery should all be easy to spot – but are there any surprises on the shelves?
Recycling for Pleasure
Craft projects are a great way to involve your children in recycling at home and making their own recycled goods. A good way to start them off could be by resisting the temptation to go out and buy new craft items for school projects – why not make a vow to make all homework projects from recycled materials? You could even get the school involved and make it a policy all the children adopt.
Recycled products aren’t just a gimmick or the latest fad – making them the norm to our children will go a long way in reducing rubbish, protecting the environment and the planet for the future generations.
this is cool but show people what to make out of recycled materials