Recycled Crafts for Kids with this environmentally friendly DIY craft inspiration for kids! Get creative ideas on how to make recycle craft from Common Household Items.
Nowadays more and more people choose to make crafts from recycling, because it causes balance between ease and economy. Recycling Projects from Common Household Items makes this type of activity a practical alternative to do at home. With easy recycled crafts for kids at home, you can turn everyday household waste into creative treasures. These eco-friendly craft activities for kids not only spark imagination but also support the planet by reusing materials that might otherwise be thrown away.
We invite you to make creative and easy crafts with recycled material with implements you have at home.
The Importance of Recycling for a Greener Future
Embracing the recycling revolution is one of the easiest ways to contribute to mitigating the environmental degradation and reduce the need to grow, harvest or extract new raw materials from the Earth. Recycling revolution and this eco-conscious DIY is to protect the environment in the fight against the degradation of the planet and from the harmful disruption and damage being done to the natural world.
Recyclable materials are certain products or manufactured materials are called waste. These products have been already used and have ceased to have value for us. Some of these wastes can be diverted in upcycled crafts to give an alternative use to the initial purpose for which they were made as they contain valuable materials that can be recovered and recycled. Projects like trash to treasure kids activities and environmental crafts for kids learning introduce eco-conscious habits early in life.
What Can Be Recycled Curbside…
They can be made of
- Paper including newspapers, magazines, catalogs, junk mail, printer paper, envelopes, gift wrapping paper and mixed paper.
- Cardboard (OCC) and paper egg cartons.
- Glass bottles and jars.
- Rigid plastic products and containers.
- Beverage containers, including tin, aluminum, and steel cans.
- or any material that can be given a second use.
On our daily level we have different ways of recyclable materials. In this case, involving kids of all ages in making crafts from recycled materials turn free spaces into moments of distraction and fun.
Types of crafts from recycled material
Here are the 4 main materials that can be done using recycling to crafts while developing our imagination, creativity, and motor skills that you should consider:
Amazing Crafts from Recycled Materials
Let’s dive into some inspiring recycled crafts for kids, categorized by the common household items they utilize:
1-Toilet roll and cardboard tube crafts.
There are so many amazing things to make with Toilet roll and cardboard tube. This material is perfect for toilet paper roll crafts for preschoolers. … From personalized pens, through different animals and even a wide variety of toys.
1-DIY Toilet Paper Roll Crafts for Kids
DIY Toilet Paper Roll Crafts for Kids Animals
Toilet paper rolls is a wonderful material for creativity, get several packs of toilet paper, unroll the white soft part and you will have wonderful cardboard cylinders, from which you can make both simple simple preschool recycled crafts and more intricate creations, especially DIY toilet paper roll crafts for kids animals and complex crafts for the interior.
Surprisingly, any wild or domestic animals can be made from toilet paper rolls. Cut out paws, ears, horns and tails from colored paper of a suitable color to match the animal and glue them in place. Draw or glue eyes to complete your DIY toilet paper roll animals. There can be many animals, a whole zoo!
Magical Cardboard Castle
Wow! Look at this amazing castle! It’s made from cardboard tubes and boxes, a prime example of DIY kids crafts from household waste. It has towers and flags and sparkly bits details for a creative cardboard box craft for imaginative play. You can build your own pretend castle and be a king or queen! It’s super fun to make and play with!
Toilet paper roll city
Tiny houses made from paper tubes! Put those empty paper rolls to life. Make colorful walls and funny roofs. They have You can draw windows and doors and make a whole mini town for your kid’s figurines. It’s an easy recycled craft for preschoolers and fun to build your own special homes!
Recycle Craft- Toilet Tube Animals
Toilet paper rolls are great because there are always lots of them! It feels good to use them for crafts instead of just throwing them away.
Making these cute toilet tube animals isn’t just for little kids – bigger kids and even grown-ups can have fun too! There’s nothing wrong with a little pretend play with these mini creatures.
The Angry Bird
How to make these Angry Bird craft from a toilet paper roll? An Angry Bird made from a paper tube! It’s red and looks a little bit grumpy with its big eyebrows and pointy beak. The yellow one looks mad too! You can make your own Angry Birds using paper tubes and colorful paper. It’s a fun way to bring your favorite game to life!
Toilet Paper Roll Race Cars:
Before you throw away all your toilet paper rolls, take a look at these cool cars and be amazed. They’re made from toilet paper tubes and colorful paper. They have wheels and even steering wheels for a simple recycled craft for kids that encourages imaginative play! You can make your own race cars and have a super fun race! Vroom vroom!
Cardboard Tube Organizer.
The cardboard tube organizer. It is easy to make this organizer when you follow step-by-step instructions. Toilet paper tubes are a material that can be used to make a variety of cardboard crafts. A desk organizer is one of those genius ideas. Simply cutting and wrapping cardboard rolls with paper. OR recycle all the tubes once they’re used up in the bathroom.
Toilet Tube Owl!
Meet our adorable red and white cartoon character! 🎨✨ This handmade toy, crafted from a toilet paper roll, is perfect for playtime or as a unique decorative piece, this handmade toy showcases the creativity and craftsmanship that goes into every detail.
2-Easy Cardboard Box Crafts for Toddlers Imaginative Play
With so many different sizes of cardboard boxes available, the possibilities are endless. From décor items to organizers, musical instruments, and decorative storage cardboard boxes especially easy cardboard box crafts for toddlers imaginative play.
Cool Cardboard TV project
Got lots of cardboard boxes? Turn them into super fun toys for kids! Cardboard is amazing because you can make almost anything with it, and it’s safe for children to play with. Plus, making your own cardboard toys is cheap, lets you be creative, and is often easier than you think!
DIY Bunny Recycled Cardboard Box Playhouse
Imagine a playhouse built with your own hands, a magical space crafted from simple cardboard! This charming recycled cardboard box craft, adorned with whimsical white details like bunnies and a round window, invites endless imaginative adventures. It’s a world of your child’s making, a cozy corner for stories and games, proving that the most wonderful toys are often born from creativity and a bit of cardboard magic. Ready to build their dream hideaway?
Cardboard Dollhouse
Unlock a world of miniature design and play with these sleek cardboard dollhouses! It is quite easy to make it yourself. For this you will need a large cardboard box from household appliances.
Imagine the joy of assembling these stylish structures, creating rooms, and arranging tiny furniture. Their dimensions are ideal for children aged 3 to 6 years. It’s a fantastic way to spark creativity, develop spatial reasoning, and build a dream home – in miniature!
DIY Lightning McQueen & Mater Box Car Costumes
Have your little ones ever dreamed to be the awesome Lightning McQueen Racecar. OR zooming around like Mate having fun adventures? Here is their chance, just a few simple craft items of 60 minutes you can create these fantastic cardboard box car costumes for serious fun!
Following instructions to create their favorite Cars characters! McQueen and Mater’s signature detailing will make your kids ready for some serious fun.
Roar-some Recycled Lion 🦁
Look at this cool lion! Using recycled materials for children’s crafts … made from cardboard! See its pointy mane and funny eyes? You can make your own animal friends from boxes too… a great cardboard animal craft. It’s easy and fun!
DIY Viking longboats
This DIY Viking longship, made from recycled cardboard, is a fantastic and engaging craft project perfect for children to create. It’s fun design, featuring a dragon head and colorful details, sparks imagination and provides hours of creative fun as a cardboard boat craft.
3D Pop-Up Card Wonderland
A beautiful DIY 3D pop-up Christmas card, likely featuring paper cutouts of snowy trees, a cozy house. Inver Cote is perfect for creating three-dimensional crafts from cardboard, as it is designed for those purposes when you need to produce an aesthetic effect. It’s a creative and engaging project for children to make and share holiday cheer.
2- DIY Plastic Crafts for Kids
Another excellent material for creating is those that start from the reuse of plastic bottles and other plastic items. Despite the great use of plastic materials in our daily lives, and their annual production is likely to exceed, therefore, reducing and reusing of this material as ways to recycle becomes essential contribution to the environment.
However, for those who want to give this material another uses with practical ideas, simple crafts can be put into practice. So, turn on your imagination and make amazing crafts from plastic.
1-Crafts with plastic bottles:
It’s really cool to recycle and reuse plastic bottles, using plastic bottle crafts in several very creative ways to get beautiful crafts. Some examples can be planters, bag dispensers, funny figurines. birdhouses, mobile hangers…After all, crafts using recycled bottles are always a great way to do them with friends or even with kids
Crafts with plastic bottles:
We can use plastic bottle crafts in several very creative ways to get beautiful crafts. Some examples can be planters, bag dispensers, funny figurines. birdhouses, mobile hangers
The Penguin Family
The Penguin Family are made from old plastic bottles and dressed up in silly hats and scarves! If you have drawing skills, you can easily create these adorable, recycled plastic bottle crafts. Paint your own penguin friends, draw eyes and a beak, paint the body with black and white paint. And put them in the garden for a fun surprise! It’s a cool way to recycle!
Milk jugs Bird Feeder
Most families use up a lot of milk jugs each week. Instead of just tossing them, why not give them a new job? Milk jugs might not look super fancy, but they’re fantastic for gardening! The plastic is strong and thick, perfect for creating easy recycled crafts for the garden like bird feeders. OR all sorts of useful things, like little shovels or plant pots. Plus, you can easily paint them and make them look great! Here are just a few ideas for what you can do with those empty milk jugs.
Recycle Plastic Bottles For Bird Feeders
Lots of cool bird feeders show you how to reuse plastic bottles to decorate your yard! You just need to make a top to keep the food dry and a little spot for the birds to sit and snack. You can poke holes near the top to hang it with string or wire. Or, you can even nail your bottle bird feeder to a wooden post, fence, or wall outside.
Recycled Plastic Bottles for Yard Decorations
This vibrant yard decoration, shaped like a ladybug, is cleverly crafted from numerous recycled plastic bottles painted red and black. It’s a creative and eco-friendly way to add a splash of color and whimsy to any garden space, showcasing the potential of plastic bottle recycling in art.
Plastic Bottle Cap Crafts:
And even caps from plastic bottles for making crafts is almost everywhere. With a little patience can turn into real masterpieces…. cute for children and adults. Don’t forget the potential of upcycled cereal box crafts for kids puzzles for some brain-teasing fun!
Recycles Bottle Caps Garden Walkway Designs
This stunning garden walkway, made from recycled bottle caps, showcases intricate and colorful floral patterns embedded in a blue base. It’s a creative and an eco-conscious DIY approach to landscape design, a way to transform discarded materials into a unique and eye-catching landscape design, adding artistry to every step.
Bottle Caps Parchís Game
A Parchís game made with colorful bottle caps and cardboard! You can move your pieces around the board and try to get them all home first. It’s a fun game to play with your friends and family, and it’s all made from things you can find around the house! Let’s play!
Plastic DIY Soda Cap
Examples highlight how discarded materials can be transformed into beautiful and useful objects through imaginative upcycling.
Colorful bottle caps from plastic bottles
These super cool flower pictures! They’re made from colorful bottle caps and old plastic bottles! Save your bottle caps and bottles and make your own amazing flower art. It’s a fun way to help our planet by recycling!
Bottle Caps Fish
Cute little fishes swimming in the blue sea! They’re made from colorful bottle caps! See their shiny eyes and swishy tails? You can make your own ocean friends using bottle caps and paper. It’s a fun and easy craft to try! Let’s make some fish!
DIY plastic bottle caps flowers
These cheerful DIY flowers are cleverly made from colorful plastic bottle caps arranged around buttons and stems. They are displayed in repurposed bottles, showcasing a fun and eco-friendly way to create bright and lasting decorations. It’s a simple yet vibrant craft that adds a pop of color to any space.
DIY art for kids
This can capture a child’s creative process, transforming a simple drawing of a hot air balloon into a textured masterpiece using colorful plastic bottle caps. The bright caps add a playful, three-dimensional element to the artwork, showcasing a fun and tactile approach to DIY art for kids. It’s a wonderful example of how everyday recycled materials can spark imagination and artistic expression.
3-Creative Egg Carton Crafts for Kids Learning Games
1-Cardboard egg cups
Cardboard egg cups are often made of paper that was recycled and can be recycled again. It is one of the most versatile recycling materials due to its shape, and the resistance and malleability, it can be easily used in crafting to make totally ecological crafts and toys, suitable for children of all ages.
Easter Chicken Egg Holder
Yay for easy Easter crafts you can make with everyday supplies you probably have around the house anyway. Fun!
Egg Carton Little Penguin Crafts
Egg cartons have a perfect shape for becoming cute little penguins! You can easily make a whole group of them. They’re a lovely touch to your winter decorations. Hang them up as a fun ornament string or simply place them on a table to make it more cheerful. Grouping them in the middle of the table creates a really fun look!
This craft is super simple: you cut out the egg carton shapes, and then let the kids have fun painting the penguins black and white.
Green DIY Alligators
These vibrant green DIY alligators, crafted from cardboard egg cartons, are a fantastic example of turning everyday waste into playful eco-friendly toys. By repurposing something destined for the trash, this project beautifully demonstrates recycling in action, offering a hands-on way to teach children about environmental responsibility while fostering creativity.
The addition of googly eyes, red paper details, and colorful streamers for tongues brings these recycled reptiles to life with a fun and imaginative flair.
Egg Carton Flower Wall Hanging
Save your egg cartons to make hanging egg carton flower crafts. It is amazing what can be made using egg cartons as it is a beautiful way to display them. Whisk egg carton flower crafts are great to do with the kids they also make for a fun and relaxing adult craft. This stunning wall hanging would look lovely in a child’s bedroom.
3-Crafts with recycled paper and cardboard
Trees are the origin of paper and cardboard, through a complex chemical process, we must praise their recycling. The recycling circuit of this material reduces the demand for trees and so fewer will be planted. In addition, its composition allows for easy handling, so by subjecting it to a new reprocessing mechanism, quality paper can be obtained to be reused for other purposes.
Thinking about Recycled paper and cardboard, these materials have excellent qualities that offer us a wide variety of uses to make. There are lots of great recyclable crafts based on paper and cardboard out of colored cardstock, from their reuse in our home…
Recycle your paper and cardboard Household Items in fantastic crafts such as costumes, games, organizers, such as personalized pencil holders, excellent when decorating the room decoration…
DIY woodland animal figures
A charming collection of DIY woodland animal figures, seemingly crafted from layered cardboard or thin wood. These figures would make delightful decorations, educational toys, or engaging craft projects for children and adults alike, celebrating the beauty of wildlife through creative construction.
Cardboard Christmas Tree.
A corrugated cardboard Christmas tree is a fantastic craft for kids of all ages, from toddlers (with a little help!) up to elementary school. For the youngest ones (around 1.5 years), you’ll do most of the work. But for children aged 4-5 and up, they can likely build this festive tree all by themselves! It’s a fun and easy way to get creative for the holidays.
The Farm Kit
Want to bring a playful farm right into your home? These charming cardboard animals – a spotty cow, a friendly donkey, and a stripy cat – are waiting to be brought to life by your hands! Imagine the fun of cutting, coloring, and assembling these adorable figures.
Cardboard Train Playhouse for Kids
All Aboard for Your Child’s Next Big Adventure! 🚂✨… Picture the pure delight beaming from your child as they climb aboard their custom-built cardboard train playhouse, their imagination ticket to countless adventures, both real and make-believe.
Corrugated cardboard owl
Want to create an adorable and textured owl decoration? This charming craft uses rolled-up cardboard to give the owl’s body and eyes a unique, three-dimensional look! It’s a fantastic way to recycle cardboard and create a truly eye-catching piece of art that everyone will admire. Ready to roll and create your own wise owl?
Storytime at Your Fingertips!
Ready to bring your favorite stories to life right on your fingertips? These adorable DIY finger puppets are your ticket to hours of imaginative fun! Imagine crafting Little Red Riding Hood, the Big Bad Wolf, and even the brave woodsman with just paper and a little creativity.
Animated Kittens Made from Boxes
Make your own super cool kitty cat, it’s made from cardboard and has bright stripes and big googly eyes! You can change the colorful tape and markers to make your desired cat the way you like. It’s easy and so much fun to create your very own cardboard pet! What colors will your kitty be?
4-Crafts with glass or wood
Crafts can also be made from reused glass and wood objects since you can put this material into action. their materiality can be completely different – it all depends on the imagination of the master. Because they are very versatile a creative person can transform them and creates new elegant and luxurious appearance for alternative use.
1-Crafts with recycled glass
Glass surrounds us everywhere in our houses are full of unnecessary glass (whole or broken) that clutters up the space, Crafts can also be made from them. They can be considered among the most practical craft to do. The existing items can be decorated, turned into vases, containers for storing food, or in recycled glass cups.
Butterfly Oasis in Glass Jars
Create a beautiful Butterfly Oasis inside a glass jar as part of one of the recyclable crafts, since it involves a new purpose. Reusing different glass jars will be useful if they have wide-mouthed jars you’ve been saving for this craft. Let’s transform them into enchanting habitats for delicate butterflies.
Purple Halloween glass Jars
Add a handcrafted touch to your Halloween decor with this set of three purple-themed recycled glass jars. Each jar is hand-painted and includes an electric candle, with one large centerpiece and two smaller accent pieces.
Modern Glass fusing
Discover glass fusing, …Fusing is a modern glass art technique, easier than stained glass, where colorful glass pieces are heated in a furnace to create seamless, textured designs. Unlike stained glass with its metal frames, fused glass forms a solid, often vibrant, artwork with smooth or raised surfaces.
Stone Crafting
Decorating plastic or glass bottles with stones and other natural materials s is one of the popular and simple decor options. In a short period of time, you or your child can make a piece of art from recycling a bottle, which will be a good gift for friends or an interior decoration for your home.
2-Crafts with recycled wood
Wood can be converted into new objects useful for multiple activities and creations. Before you throw away a wooden chair or table, a painting, transform this natural resource into simple decorative pieces with wood.
Benches with wooden planks
See how simple wood scraps can become something useful and stylish? This cozy stool, built from recycled wood, proving the potential of recycled wood crafts.
Flower rack storage wall decoration
Using recycled wooden materials, fresh and natural colors, and a cute little house shape, it adds a touch of natural color display to the space, which is so thoughtful, warm and harmonious.
DIY Wooden Crate Projects
A charming DIY storage crate cleverly designed to resemble Thomas the Tank Engine using recycled wood. This crate provides a fun and engaging way to organize toys and belongings in a child’s room. It’s a creative blend of functionality and playful design.
Toy box
When you have young kids, it feels like toys magically appear with every visitor! Soon, parents face the challenge of finding a place for all these wonderful treasures. That’s where a toy box becomes a real lifesaver.
Tricycle Garden Planters
Want to easily rearrange your garden? Movable wheelbarrow planters are perfect! Plant your favorites and simply wheel them to create different looks anytime.
Wooden Plant Box
A charming recycled wooden box has been beautifully repurposed into a unique plant box. Filled with an assortment of small succulents, miniature figurines, and decorative pebbles, it transforms reclaimed wood into a delightful and miniature garden display, perfect for adding a touch of rustic charm to any space.
Making Cool Stuff with Things You Usually Throw Away
We’ve seen that you can make really fun things with stuff you have at home that you might normally put in the trash. Things like toilet paper tubes, cardboard boxes, and plastic bottles can become awesome DIY projects that kids will love to make and play with.
Doing recycled crafts for kids isn’t just fun; it teaches them to be smart about using things and taking care of the planet. It also helps them think creatively and solve problems. When we show kids that they can see new uses for old things, they learn to be more careful with what they use and how they can make something special out of it.
So, next time you’re about to throw away a cereal box, an egg carton, or even those extra buttons and straws, think about what else they could become. Get the kids involved and have fun making upcycled crafts together. They’ll learn that you can make amazing things from what you already have, and those creations and the memories you make will stick around for a long time. Making something new from something old is super cool and shows that if you use your imagination, you can do anything! Have fun making stuff!
