Ideal Bite

Recycling Artwork

Kiddos' drawings just hangin' around the house, collecting dust?

08.05.2009

Submitted by alara on Tue, 08/04/2009 - 11:00pm.

The Bite:

Give 'em a job to do: Show your kids how to reuse their old artwork as wrapping paper, greeting cards, or as part of their next masterpiece. You'll clear up piles of old projects, spark creative ideas, and get spent paper back to the grind.

The Benefits:

Giving trees some time off. Paper goods suck up at least 35% of the world's yearly commercial tree harvest. Reusing a coloring book page or flipping over a finger painting spares a few.
Relocating to a better home office. Recycling art helps clean the house out from under all the kid clutter, but without trashing any beloved pictures or adding to the waste stream.
Training on-the-job. Repurposing paper and crafts gets kids' imaginations going, and demonstrates the value of reuse.
Slashing expenses. Money saved on paper and crafts products can be put to better use...like, um, playdate cocktails.

Personally Speaking:

Wanna Try:

Use larger art pieces for wrapping paper, and smaller pieces for thank-yous and birthday cards.
Collect old illustrations, then concoct and write a story to accompany them (with your kiddos' help if they can). Staple pictures and story together to make a book - voilá, a gift for grandparents.
Cut the pages of used coloring books into strips, and staple them together to make paper chains. Great as Christmas tree decorations - just wrap them around the tree like a popcorn string.
Paste drawings onto cardboard and cut them up to make puzzles.
Snip watercolor paintings into little pieces and glue them on another piece of paper or cardboard to make mosaics.

Timeout

Audrey Anne Orr, 6, of Walnut Creek, CA, loves to decorate her room with paper chains - like this one made from crayon drawings, finger paintings, and sticker books.

Bang For The Bite

If 10,000 bitty Biters reuse just one piece of paper a day for an art project instead of grabbing a new one, after a year they'll save 317 trees.

4 comments

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Lyn King on August 05, 2009 at 06:21 AM 1

I love these ideas. At our house we already use paper from my husband's office that is clean on one side that would normally get put in the recycle bin. He brings a big stack of it home when we are running low. I keep a big wooden crate filled with this paper that they can use for all types of art projects.

Katie on August 05, 2009 at 06:37 AM 2

Please stop using "kiddos." It grates on my nerves every time I see it.

paisleygo on August 05, 2009 at 04:23 PM 3

That is a great idea - my boys are in the roll your eyes stage now - no more kiddo art cominghome in droves like it used to - BUt I still have tons squirreled away - maybe I'll drag it out next time we are wrapping presents

Emily on November 12, 2009 at 05:36 AM 4

Giving trees some time off. Paper goods suck up at least 35% of the world's yearly commercial tree harvest. Reusing a coloring book page or flipping over a finger painting spares a few. free online games

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Kiddos' drawings just hangin' around the house, collecting dust?

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Bang For The Bite

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