Home recycling is a great way to teach your children about the environment and about the business of running a household. Most children have heard of "paychecks" and "bills" but they do not really understand until they are taught. In the same way, many people, both children and adults, are unconscious of the ripple-effect that occurs when recycling bins are used instead of garbage cans.

Collecting, storing, transporting and disposing of garbage costs a lot of money, regardless of the scale. Swedish Medical Center, in Seattle, estimates saving over $1 million dollars since starting its recycling program in 2001. Your family can save money, as well, and your children will be delighted to help, especially if you pass some of your family's savings on to them in the form of increased allowances in exchange for participating.

Educate Them On The Importance Of Recycling

The first step in starting a family recycling program with your children is to help them to understand the importance of recycling. Explain to them how products are made using various natural and manmade resources and what happens when items are thrown in the trash. There are plenty of good children's books about recycling, landfills, and pollution that will help you to educate your child about the dangers of toxic materials in landfills, pollution, and dwindling land availability. Children are idealistic and it is easy to get them excited about using recycling containers.

You can empower your children by involving them in the decision-making process. Once they understand the importance of recycling, you can begin to teach them about what can and what cannot be recycled. Mixed media items, such as glass jar lids and waxed milk cartons, generally cannot be placed in recycling bins. Plastics numbered #1 or #2 are recyclable. Plastics marked with #3, #4, #5, #6, and especially #7 should not to be added to recycling bins. Teaching your children to consider these differences will strengthen their thinking and reading skills, as well as protect the environment and the family budget.

Create Visual Prompts And Rewards

You can help your child understand how to use the family recycling containers with pictures. You can attach pictures of recyclable materials to your recycling bins and even have your child help you to create these prompts. Placing the recycling bins next to trash cans will help your child, and the rest of the family, to participate. Convenience is key to successfully using recycling bins. The single stream recycling available from Waste Wise Products adds to this convenience by allowing families to recycle everything in the same container.

You can reward your children for using the recycling bins by increasing their allowance for helping out. Children's tasks can include monitoring the recycling containers, emptying recycling bins, and rinsing out bins for recycling. You can take this one step further by educating your children about family finances and the cost of trash disposal. Instead of spending more money to dispose of garbage and adding to the environmental problems of the world today, you can teach your child how acting responsibly is beneficial in both the short and long term.

The Business Of Good Choices

You can use your recycling bins to teach your children basic business terminology. Business finances are recorded as either assets, liabilities, income or expenses. You can explain to your children that the tools of their recycling "business", such as the recycling bins, are their assets. You can compare the cost of disposing of garbage with the reduced cost of using recycling bins. Then use the family budget to demonstrate how paychecks are income, bills are expenses, the things owned by the family are assets and debts are liabilities. The family's net worth is the difference between liabilities and assets. Expenses are subtracted from income to determine the profitability of the household budget.

There is no way to place a monetary value on an environment that is safe and healthy, but your children and your children's will certainly benefit from using recycling bins and understanding basic family finances.