Sorting waste? Child’s play! – Part 2.

How to start sorting waste? The earlier you start to share this approach to your child, the more it becomes a standard in practice. We recommend that you start with teaching to recognise the different materials: find out what is made out of paper, plastic, metal, etc.

You can find objects of each material in your home, and talk about which ones can be reused for other purposes. When recognising already goes well, you can start sorting the waste into separate bins. Do not forget to get information about the rules of your hometown, since the separation of some objects can vary. For example we collect the boxes of milk and fruit juice in the paper bin in Budapest, while these boxes go in the plastic bins in the countryside.
Practicing waste sorting can be playful. Clean two metal cans, colour them with blue and yellow paint and talk about the significance of the colours of the bins. You can also draw the icons on the cans. Take a paper magazine, cut out the advertisement of objects and the game can start! Try to sort them into the accurate bins. Later on, you can add the remaining bins as well (organic waste, glass, etc).
It is also fun to sort the materials itself: cut plastic bottles, papers into small pieces that the child can place in the correct bins.
Children at preschool age are already able to understand more complex connections. (Earlier they prefer to sort objects by colours instead of materials). Place blue, yellow, green, gray and white papers on the table. Talk about the symbolism of the colours, ask the child to draw objects on the papers and collection can start. Look for the drawn objects in the room and sort them by their materials.
There are more and more children’s books available on the market to help increase environmental consciousness at an early age. For example Gréta by Andrea Gregusova, What a Waste: Trash, Recycling, and Protecting our Planet by Jess French are a good start.

Rita Kőszegi,
Forest Tale Daycare

This article is translated by Anita Nagy.
Click here for the Hungarian version.