Fun Ways To Teach Teenagers About Recycling

There are plenty of activities and games that you can do with younger kids to teach them about the importance of recycling, but the same things won't work with teenagers. So, what do you do to teach your teenagers about recycling and get them more involved? Check out these fun ideas.

Recycled Art

Does your teen enjoy art projects? If so, take some time to introduce your teen to the world of recycled art. There are several project ideas that you can use. including:

• Use bottle caps to create a mosaic print by arranging the bottle caps on a thick piece of painting paper to create an image, then gluing them into place.
• Shred your old newspaper and use it to complete a papier-mâché project.
• Create a flower-themed art project from recyclable items. Simply, cut a water bottle in half, lengthwise. Then, paint the outside of each half to make a vase. Use hot glue to adhere the bottle halves to a poster board. Then, arrange green pipe cleaners so that they come out of the "vase" as flower stems and old buttons into the shape of a blooming flower. Once you have all of the pieces arranged, use hot glue to adhere everything to the poster board.
• Decorate used mint tins. Then, use them to hold money, jewelry, or other small items.

Visit the Scrap Yard

Most teens like making money, so show your teen how you can recycle and make money by visiting your local scrapyard. Collect and crush pop cans or gather up unused pieces of metal from other projects to take to the scrap yard. Then, have your teen exchange what you've gathered for cash. Visit sites like http://www.puremetalrecycling.com/ to learn more.

Go Thrift Store Shopping

Many teens love to shop, but they might not be so thrilled about thrifting. That's because they don't think that they'll find thing they like at the thrift shop, so it's time to prove your teen wrong. Before you go gather up old, unused clothing and household items that you can donate to the thrift store. When you arrive, allowed your teen to choose a few outfits that reflect his or her style.

If your teen absolutely refuses to shop at a thrift shop, take him or her to a local resale shop. Most areas have shops that where people can buy and sell name-brand clothing and accessories. So, you're still teaching your teen that clothing doesn't need to end up in a landfill.

It can be hard to get a teenager interested in doing something. So, if you're determined to teach your teen about the importance of recycling, you need to make learning fun. Before you know it, your teen will be reminding you to recycle.

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