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MCC Daily Tribune

Green Tip: Sustainability Fun with the Family

Stuck at home?  What a great opportunity for some educational fun centered on sustainability.  Remember to focus on the 3 Rs: Reduce – Reuse – Recycle.

Reduce 

  • Let your children choose the snacks for the week and only buy what you need, reducing food waste.
  • Emphasize cleaning and properly storing tools and toys to protect them from damage, reducing what goes into landfills.
  • Use sunlight not lights during the day, reducing energy used.

Reuse

  • Have worn-out clothes and fabric pieces laying around?  Transform them into a patchwork throw. Let your kids cut out the squares and stitch them together. Let them cut and sew smaller designs on larger squares. Then you can assemble with quilt batting and a backing piece.
  • What to do with broken crayons?  Melt them into a brand-new set. Allow your children to pull off any wrappers, sort the colors and fill silicone molds. You cut them into pieces to go in the molds and bake them.
  • Have partially burned candles?  A little work with some old teacups and new wicking, you have some cute gifts.
  • How about all those popsicle sticks?  They make a great soap dish!
  • Create your own birdfeeder!  Use ice cream cones or just have the kids collect some pinecones! Use yarn scraps instead of twine and substitute cooled bacon fat instead of peanut butter or vegetable shortening; all you need to buy is some birdseed.
  • Can’t stand just recycling your holiday cards?  They make great little gift boxes!

Recycle

Everyone can help recycle.  The EPA estimates that 75% of garbage in the United States is recyclable, but we only recycle about 30% of it.

Ann Penwarden
Sustainability Steering Committee’s Recycling Committee
02/09/2021