Make the Most of Recycling at Your Child’s School
By: Jess Littman of Revivn.com
Recycling is one of the easiest ways that every individual can have a positive impact on the environment. Learning the proper methods of recycling at an early age can help kids retain the habit throughout their lifetimes, and inspire a passion for environmentalism.
Here are a few tips on how to get your child as involved as possible with recycling at school and at home:
1. Help kids build better programs.
Your child’s school probably has a recycling program of some sort - but maybe they recycle only paper, or don’t separate metal and glass. This leads to inaction for many environmentally-conscious parents and students: if there was no recycling program, you’d probably start one, but since it’s already there, what can you do?
Actually there’s a lot you can do - but it’s even better if your child takes the lead. If he doesn’t seem to understand recycling at school, or points out that you do it differently at home, work with him and his teachers on ways to improve the program - like adding more categories for separation, or offering more lessons to students on why they should care about recycling.
2. Come up with fun ways to distinguish between bins.
Most school systems require clearly labeled bins, but for younger students, a written label is often not enough. Instead, lobby the school (or better yet, help your child lobby her teacher) to color code bins and use mnemonic devices to remember (glass in the green bin, plastic in the pink bin, etc). When kids can recycle on sight, without stopping to read several labels, they’re more likely to do it correctly.
3. Recycle at home.
Your child can probably learn more about recycling at school, where many teachers devote classroom time to the topic. But in order to understand that recycling is beneficial all the time, they need to know that it’s not something that just happens at school. Learn as much as you can about the recycling program at your child’s school, and try to mimic it at home.
4. Show kids why recycling is important through the power of repurposing.
The concept of recycling is difficult to grasp: a plastic bottle goes into the bin, travels to a factory, and reappears as something completely different. You can bring this process to life by repurposing recyclables in your own home or your child’s classroom, showing them that what we call waste still has value. Spoonful has how-to’s for crafting and educational projects you and your child can easily complete using old bottles, cans and newspapers.
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About the Author:
Jess Littman is Revivn’s Communications Associate. She shares knowledge about repurposing, recycling, technology, social enterprise, and how the Revivn mission combines all four via social media and Revivn’s blog, Rewritten. She is currently in her senior year at New York University.
About Revivn:
Revivn is a new kind of company dedicated to changing the world through the power of business. They repurpose technology that companies are done using, keeping it from becoming electronic waste, and give it to schools and community programs to increase access to technology around the world.
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