Teaching children about recycling when they are young can create habits that they will take into adulthood. Children in Utah can begin these habit-forming activities at home. For example, Diane Peters suggests reminding children to shut off the lights and television in rooms that they are not in. She goes onto suggest going shopping with your children to get energy saving products for your house. To take this one step further, go online or to a library and look up articles that talk about conservation at home, and then go shopping with your children with a list you have made together of the products that you will buy. Your children will feel that they were part of the process, and will enjoy the experience more.
Children also may want to see how their actions affect the world around them directly. Children can create a fertilizer for a garden by composting different vegetable scraps. Tasting the fruits of recycling can give them an idea of the benefits of this habit.
Recycling activities in Utah can even extend to schools. Good habits are reinforced through repetition, and running some ideas by a teacher about some recycling activities may help your children. Suggest an arts and crafts day to the teacher where children bring in objects to recycle. The students can make insects or monsters by attaching googly eyes to egg carton cups that have been cut off or by creating a simple bird feeder out of a milk carton that they decorate. These activities can be fun for children.
Another activity that can be suggested to a teacher is having the kids bring in cans and bottles that they have washed out beforehand. The teacher can collect these in bins and recycle these to make money for a class activity or field trip toward the end of the year. Recycle Utah offers field trips, lesson plans and workshops to schools year around.
Children in Utah can learn leadership skills and organizational skills by including the whole neighborhood in a recycling project. Accompanying the children through the neighborhood, have them announce door to door that they are picking up used clothes for the local shelter. This activity will not only make the children realize that food products aren't the only things that can be recycled, but it can also make neighbors realize that they don't have to throw things in the trash.
Another activity that children can do to recycle is to help organize a community garden on a spot of land that isn't used. This can benefit the entire neighborhood. The homemade compost can help this garden.
Like most states, recycling and conservation programs in Utah allow children to learn how to care for the world around them. With the mission statement "To preserve the land and the human connection to the natural landscape, to educate the local and broader communities about the value of nature, and to nurture both the ecosystem and the people connected with it," Swaner Preserve and Eco Center has preserved some of Utah's nicest natural assets while educating generations on helping nature. This can be a great family activity. Children will appreciate Utah's natural beauty while helping to maintain it. Families will benefit from their time spent together. In addition, the Recycle Utah program offers composting workshops, community yard sales, an annual water festival and other events throughout the year that children can participate in.