The Importance of Teaching Students How to Reduce Their Cardboard Waste

Facing national lockdowns on and off over the last year has meant people have had to rely on online shopping to purchase specific items. This increase in online orders has led to a cardboard shortage which is impacting the supplies of food and medicine packaging around the UK. The Recycling Association warns that the impact of COVID-19 could have lasting effects, causing a European shortage of fibre.

Forming eco-conscious habits early

Something that can make a massive impact on reducing our carbon footprint now, and for the future, is setting students up to be more environmentally conscious. It is argued that early childhood education could play an essential role in sustainable practice, as it’s considered to be a time when children’s attitudes and values are established for the first time.

Building awareness about sustainability early on and in a creative way can help establish sustainable habits like reusing and recycling items, that students can implement for years to come. For example, making paper and card is a damaging process for the environment as it takes 24 trees to make just one tonne of paper. Overall, Brits currently use around 12.5 million tonnes of paper each year, which equates to 300 million trees. The more cardboard we throw away without reusing it, the more of it that must be produced – bringing with it the potential of massively contributing to landfill.

How to repurpose cardboard boxes

Packaging retailer RAJA has revealed their three top tips for transforming delivery boxes into new items to help build a more eco-conscious mindset in students today. Try one of the approaches below to create a fun and creative lesson about the importance of giving reusable items a second life.

Classroom storage boxes

Delivery boxes come in all sort of sizes, making them ideal to transform into storage boxes for a range of different toys, stationery and books that can be used around the classroom. Get your students to bring in cardboard boxes from home, and give it an upgrade by decorating, painting and labelling them. Let your students explore their creativity by personalising their box with stickers, pens or paint.

Plant pots

Show your students how much fun gardening can be by turning your excess cardboard boxes into a handmade plant pot or planter. All you have to do is line your box with a plastic bag – or bin bag for larger boxes – before adding your soil and seeds or plants. You can also get your students to decorate the boxes, perhaps by drawing or painting what they’re trying to grow or by adorning them with little pebbles or sticks.

Home learning crafts

The side of a large cardboard box can easily be transformed to serve a wide range of uses. Why not create a customisable class schedule to help plan out the day? Paint it in fun colours and make individual task cards relating to school subjects that you can stick on and remove when relevant. It’s a fun and helpful way to make sure students know what they can expect to learn that day.

Giving cardboard boxes a new lease of life is a great way to help reduce waste and teach young minds about the importance of reusing items before they go into the recycling bin. And, with so many different sized cardboard boxes out there, there are no limits to what you can turn them into, providing bundles of fun in any classroom.