#165 - Drawing Conclusions

Recycling Crayons

Got kids? Then you've got crayons - and lots of them. I have an entire Huggies Wipes tub chock full of crayons. I'm not really sure where they all came from. Every year, over two BILLION crayons are sold. I do believe about a third of them are in my house. And they appear to be multiplying daily.

So what do I do when the kids finally outgrow coloring? Or when their crayon colletion outgrows the tub? How cheesy would you feel giving a box of "used crayons nubs" to friends... or even to charity? You probably wouldn't do it. Neither would I. But would you just throw them in the trash? That's no solution. Crayons are made from paraffin wax - a petroleum product - which takes many, many years to biodegrade.

Well there's a company out there that recycles broken, stubbed and well-loved crayons. They remanufacture them into different shapes and resell them. It's called The Crayon Bin and they have a really neat program set up to help individuals and schools recycle their crayon bits. Here's some info straight from their site:

Crayons-4-Crayons Program

This program is an excellent teaching tool, as well as a great way to recycle broken and well loved crayons. It teaches kids the responsibility we have to our environment and the processes involved in recycling. This is a recycling program that allows kids to really do something to help the earth on their level.

Every child has crayons, they're everywhere!!! Rather then discarding them why not let "TheCrayonBin.com" recycle them. We all know that when we discard or throw things in the trash they end up in the landfills. Landfills are in short supply and waste management companies are looking for new locations to put a landfill. Most people don't want a landfill in their "backyard" so why not try to recycle and reuse to the extent that we can, to keep as much as we can from being placed into the landfills.

The best part about the program is the Crayons-4-Crayons Exchange. For every pound (a little more than 100 crayons) you will receive a set of new "Recolor Our World Crayons" made from recycled crayons. They come in different shapes like animals, shells, stars, dinosaurs, hearts and more. Since we do not add or remove anything from the crayons during the recycling process, they are still as safe as the nontoxic ones you use everyday. We place a warning on each package that crayons are not recommended for use by children under 3 years of age.

We also have another very special use for the crayons we recycle. They are recycled into what we call "Recolor Our World CrayonTops". These crayons are a special shape made for kids and adults with difficulties in fine motor skills. (Stroke, Autism, Cerebral Palsy or Arthritis) Please ask us about these crayons. As far as I know we are the only Group manufacturing these special crayons, new or recycled.

You may contact us for shipping instructions or we will gladly come to your South Jersey location to pick up your "well loved" crayons and send you some "Recolor Our World Crayons" for every pound of crayons you donate.

Remember to recycle the crayons you get from restaurants, left over crayons from around school as well as those around the house. We encourage schools to place a Crayon Recycle Bin or box in the corner of the classrooms to make it easier for the students to recycle their crayons.

Please do not remove the wrappers, they can get messy and during the recycling process they are turned into Campfire Starters so everything part of the crayon gets recycled. If you would like to sort them by color you may, but it is not required. TheCrayonBin.com will except them in any condition.

So how cool is that, folks? I know, I could search online and melt the crayons in my oven and make my own shapes, but by the time I clean out a crayon box, I'm in no mood to start a craft project. Besides, I'm not sure I want to melt crayons in my awesome new toaster oven, anyhow.

**Special super-duper thanks to my friend, Stephanie, for giving me this tip!**