Being Green is Easy With This Kid-Friendly Trash Sorting Printable

Raising eco-friendly kids starts at home and this Trash Sorting Printable makes it easy for little ones to get green!

Our recycling system has been a hot mess for years. We have a small kitchen, no mud room or laundry to speak of and, for a long time, several, frequently-overflowing trash cans strewn about the place. It was messy and cluttered and, worst of all, hard for the kids to remember which can to put stuff in. We weren’t recycling as often as we could have been and don’t even get me started on composting.

So, when Inspired Home asked us me to share some family friendly Earth Day ideas, I knew it was time to take action. We completely redesigned our home recycling (and composting) setup and the results have been fantastic. Its a sleeker, less cluttered system and much easier for everyone to remember to sort things appropriately. You can read all of my tips and details over at The Inspired Home.

One of the best ideas I had was to create a simple visual reminder to help the kids with sorting. I’d started by searching Pinterest for existing signage but couldn’t find anything appropriate for little kids. So I made my own Trash Sorting Printable.

This little sign took me about 30 minutes to design but it has been SO, SO helpful in getting my pre-readers on-board with recycling and composting. Although the visual isn’t 100 percent comprehensive, it covers many of the items the kids would encounter and need to dispose of on a regular basis.

I keep it tucked in a plastic sleeve right next to our trash and recycling (and one cabinet away from our compost bin), so its easy for them to reference anytime they need to toss something. It has made a HUGE difference in terms of the amount of actual trash we’re throwing away versus what we’re composting and recycling. Such a no-brainer I can’t believe something like this didn’t already exist.