Recycling Old Crayons

While we have been busy with our "spring cleaning" at home, my in-laws have also been busy with theirs.

My sister-in-law stoped over the house the other day and dropped off some hand-me-downs for Alonzo.

Among the loot was a huge bag full of balls!

Needless to say, the little guy was happy.

I was more excited, though, about this box of old crayons!

I've been meaning to melt and recycle some of Alonzo's old and broken crayons.The ones they use at playhouse are not the usual cylindricaly shaped crayons. Theirs are kind of square-ish, a little smaller than the size of a matchbox. I see that the shape makes it easier for little hands to grasp and also least prone to break.  

With just a few simple (but messy) steps you can recycle and re-use your child's broken

(and often rejected), old  crayons!

Step 1: Peel off the wrapper and sort crayons according to color

Step 2: Melt crayons in a "water bath".

By placing a metal bowl over a pot of boiling water.
Stir constantly.
You may melt all colors at the same time if you have smaller sized containers such as
empty soda cans cut in half.

You may also just use muffin pans and pop it in the oven
-- this lessens clean up time in half
(I would have done this instead but our pans to be too large for this).

Don't forget to cover and protect your counter with newspaper. However, I suggest that you use wax paper

(I used the wax paper backing of the liner paper
used for our DIY wall decal).

This makes it easier to peel off any melted crayon that has spilled and throw back into the water bath (this means less wastage!) 


Here's another tip, work with your colors systematically. I started with "yellow" and followed with "orange", then "red". This allowed me to just use only 1 bowl for several colors without washing.

Step 3: Once melted (it takes only a few minutes) pour over your mold and let your crayons cool and solidify
(I kept it in the refrigerator overnight)

The crayons will pop right off when they are ready.

Now, wasn't that easy!