Day Care Recycling

Both my day care and personal abode have seen my attempts at being as ‘green’ as possible in recent years. It’s not that long since I was making the glorious fortnightly trip to the recycling center with my meticulously divided waste before the advent of curbside collection. My feeble attempts at preserving the environment were, I felt, the least I could do as a polluting, wasteful human.

These attempts extend to the education of the next generation in ecological issues at my day care. The kids are aware of, and involved in, the daily routines that make up our recycling efforts and that’s in addition to incorporating same into their class lessons. We are constantly reminding them not to waste power or heat, they are familiar with the different bins for paper, glass etc and they know what the function of a compost heap.

We use various fun learning games to instil this knowledge into the kids (where does paper come from, which bin does the waste paper go into) and it is a lot easier than you might think. New concepts and ideas are absorbed by the kids in a sponge like fashion. Their enthusiasm is infectious and goes a long way towards changing more rigid mindsets outside the day care – I have had quite a few parents tell how they got into trouble at home for not recycling! Music to my ears.

We make gentle recommendations to parents to choose products based on the recyclibility of the packaging when they send in store bought snacks. Examples might be buying certain goods in larger containers or in cardboard instead of plastic packs i.e. yogurt, raisins and recycling juice bottles. The kids get involved via an art project that incorporates pictures of more environmentally friendly containers.

A large array of educational toys require batteries for sound and lights etc….a lot of batteries. You can save money and reuse your batteries when you buy a battery recharger. Alte
atively, take a trip to your local battery recycler with your stash of old, dead batteries.

We can make a huge difference with a little extra thought and effort and a variety of small changes. Environmental awareness can become second nature to kids and we, as day care providers, have this wonderful opportunity to mould their little minds. We can be proud when we hear that our preschoolers are reprimanding adults on issues green!!