With more and more household waste polluting the environment, upcycling
needs to go hand in hand with recycling. It is essential for the upcoming
generation to understand the importance of upcycling and waste reduction. Teach
your child to enjoy upcycling through these easy craft projects.
Self-watering Plastic Bottle Pots
Plastic bottles not only end up in landfills, but they also end up in
our oceans as well. Starting a garden with plastic bottles instead of pots,
your child will be adding more oxygen to the earth and reduce plastic waste.
Things you need:
• Plastic bottle
• Knife
• Thread
• Nail
• Hammer
• Soil
Steps to prep:
• Cut the bottle into two
equal halves (cut latitudinally not longitudinally to separate the top of the
bottle from the bottom of the bottle).
• Make holes in the cap of
the bottle.
• Put a bunch of threads
through the holes in the cap.
• Screw the cap back onto the
bottle.
• Fill the bottom half of the
bottle with water, a little past the halfway point.
• Invert the top half of the
bottle with the cap tightly screwed in place.
• Fill the top half with soil
and plant a small sapling.
• Place the inverted half of
the bottle over the waterfilled half of the bottle.
• Ensure that the threads are
well immersed in the water, else the water will not get soaked into the soil.
Envelop Notebook
Stores buy brown envelopes online, and the envelopes end up from
your home to the landfill. You can upcycle the brown envelopes to make a small notebook.
Things you need:
• Brown envelopes online
stores pack things in
• Thread
• Paint
• Hole Puncher
Steps to prep:
• Cut equal sized rectangles
out of multiple brown envelopes.
• Stack the paper together
• Punch three holes on one of
the longer sides
• Take the thread and bind
the paper together to form a notebook.
Milk Jug Piggy Banks
Plastic milk jugs, just like soda bottles end up polluting land and sea.
Your child can save the environment and money by turning a milk jug into a
piggy bank.
Things you need:
• Milk jug
• Knife
• Scissors
• Paintbrush
• Acrylic paint
• Hot glue gun/super glue
• Egg carton
Steps to prep:
• Turn the milk carton with
the handle facing downwards.
• Cut a coin slot, on the
side of the jug facing up.
• Cut four cups out of the egg
carton.
• Attach the four cups to
four downward corners of the carton, creating legs for the piggy bank. Use hot
glue or super glue to make it stick well.
• Allow your child to paint
the pig creatively. Draw on ears and eyes or attach cut out cardboard to make
ears and eyes.
• Paint the screwed-on cap as
the nose of the pig.
• Insert coin through the
slot and take them out by opening the nose of the pig.
Your child can grow plants in the upcycled plastic pots, make notes of
the plant growth in the upcycled notebook and save money for more plants in the
upcycled piggy bank. Let your child come up with more upcycling projects to
encourage the habit in them.
