On World Recycling Day, the children at PlusKids learned how to sort waste.
Sorting is the part of recycling that can genuinely be practised, because it is the only part that depends on us. We worked with concrete, everyday objects: packaging, bottles, paper, leftovers. What is learned here is not the list of categories but the habit of pausing for a second before throwing something away and asking what the thing in your hand is made of. Once acquired, that habit stays, and children take it home with an insistence parents remember for a long while.
We also discussed the things that complicate sorting — packaging made of several materials, unwashed containers — because that is exactly where the effort is lost. A child who understands why the detail matters stops skipping it.
Through these activities the little ones understood the importance of recycling and the impact our actions have on the environment. And they grasped something simple but important: the future of the planet is in their hands.