The "Cycle" Bin

One of our guiding principles is that we will practice sustainable living. My older littles are great at throwing trash into their bathroom sized lidded step on trash bin near the art center. One of my nightly duties is to go through their little trash bin and sort out the recycl-able items.

One night, I had a profound moment of realization with regard to the littles "trash bin". Number 1 ... almost everything in it was a recycle worthy item. Number 2 ... My littles can sort. We sort toys, we play sorting games, so why I am building in this extra step and robbing them of a valuable life lesson? The next day, I popped our little recycle bin (made of old rolled up magazines) on the floor next to their trash bin and carefully discussed what went where. They ROCKED it!! I was super proud.

Then about 20 minutes later, in came my little crawler carefully and happily unsorting the recycling. Ooops ... no lid on the bin! My solution. I purchased two brackets at the hardware store and mounted the recycle bin just above our full size trash can in the kitchen. It's high enough to be out of reach for the super little and just in reach of the bigger littles. Perfect! They love recycling and proudly announce when they have an item that need to go to the "cycle bin"