Recycling Old Crayons

"Broken crayons still color."

We accumulated a box full of broken crayons last school year and most of them are too small already for my daughter to grip.

Since crayons are made of paraffin wax, it could take decades to decompose and just throwing it out won't be good for mother earth. Instead of throwing it all out, I searched for ways how to recycle it.

So here's how we did it. 

1. Remove the paper label and break the crayons into smaller pieces. You may use an Exacto knife to cut it into smaller ones.

2. Preheat the oven to 250 C.

3. Arrange the crayons in a silicone mold. We used Lego figures and blocks mold. You can mix and match different colors in one mold but for this batch, we we wanted to achieve an "ombre" effect so we put the similar shades together.

4. Place it in the oven for around 10-15 minutes or until it is melted completely. Let it cool and harden.

5. Carefully remove from the mold and voila... you have new crayons!

I asked my daughter to help me out (Steps 1 and 2) so it served as our bonding activity too. I also introduced to her the idea of recycling at this early age.



Tip:

• Use branded crayons (we chose Crayola) only for this activity. With cheap crayons, all the color tends to settle on one side of the crayon after melting and hardening. Cheap crayons also has a tendency to burn and gives out a bad smell when melted. 
• Silicon molds are available at various baking supplies store. The Lego mold we used was bought in Shopee.

So start gathering up your old and broken crayons and give them a new life!!