All About Recycled Crayons, Colour Blocks

If you did not know I recycle crayons! I make beautiful handcrafted Colour Blocks™ stackable square block crayons recycled into earthy tones. Colour Blocks™ are also made from natural pure beeswax and soy wax.

Over the course of many years teaching art, home-schooling and a recycle artist, I collected pounds and pounds of previously loved crayons. Friends, family, students and teachers passed me their old crayons.

Not having the heart to throw them into the landfills I researched all about crayons. I learned how they were made and what they were made from. I learned some interesting facts about how long it takes for them to biodegrade. I then started experimenting with recycling old crayons. The first Colour Blocks were made and sold at a local street market bazaar in 2008. My efforts and movement to recycle crayons became a business called Colour Blocks™.

Why Recycle Crayons?

Teaching children to recycle art supplies like crayons can show how to protect our environment and what sustainability truly means.

Colour Blocks™ Mission is simple:

Sustainability through creating an eco-friendly product protecting children’s health while doing so. Reuse. Reduce. Recycle, practicing the 3 R’s!

Current Environmental Problem With Crayons: Traditional crayons are sticks of paraffin wax, similar to candles we burn in our home. Paraffin wax, colored pigments and sometimes by-products are combined to make crayons. Paraffin is crude oil fuel. Yes, a limited resource we all know about…..right? Paraffin crayons can take up to five, ten and even 25 years to naturally biodegrade into our eco systems only in the right conditions. Crude oil is biodegradable given the right conditions and environment. Decomposing back into our eco system can be a very slow process. Sometimes crayons mixed with by-products can cause low-carbon pollution.

 

Ok, let’s think about these ideas for a moment. It’s reported a baby is born every four-seconds in America. In our most recent headlines it’s estimated 7 billion people currently live on our planet. What is the first art supply mommies and daddies buy their young child… you guessed it “Crayons”. That’s a lot of crayons being manufactured and not being recycled. So where do all these crayons eventually end up? Landfills! The average family I see in the natural course of my business confirm they just threw away broken crayons and replaced them with newer looking ones yearly. Five percent have tried to recycle once or twice.

 

Natural Crayons made of soy wax & Beeswax

Are quicker biodegradable crayons like soy bean, palm wax or beeswax better for our planet?

Have you heard about natural biodegradable crayons better for our children’s health or our planet? These new types of crayons developed are soybean wax,, palm wax, and beeswax crayons known as vegetable based wax. These are grown from vegetable crops a renewable resources. Beeswax crayons are made from natural bees which have been around for decades.

All crayons are usually tinted with natural mineral powders, natural earth pigments or synthetic color powders. Even though these new types of crayons are made from renewable resources they still create landfill pollution. Packaging waste that must be in the right environment to be 100% biodegradable. Lets not forget to factor in the manufacturing footprint, crop farming and impact and our environment. Lastly, we need to be aware of natural low VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) which is caused by all these crayons in the landfills. VOCs in the by-products decaying and emitting gases in our eco system.

 

Which crayons are better for babies health?

Remember all those babies being born every four -seconds! Picking crayons that best suit your child’s needs should be based safety. Non-toxic crayons should be high on your priority list. Today all art supply manufactures are required to be labeled with the statement “Conforms to ASTM D-4236”. The ASTM label is mandatory by the CPSC (U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission) and hopefully certified by the manufacture as a non-toxic.

Generally speaking, most crayons sold today in America are non-toxic. Less than a decade ago crayon manufactures were not required to conform to this law. If you have very old crayons more than ten to twenty years old please discard and don’t allow children under 12 years to play with them. Grandparents may save old art supplies that may not have the original box with proper labeling.

Other reasons parents pick paraffin vs. soy or beeswax is due to allergies. Some children may have allergic reactions to colorants, waxes or even beeswax. Colorants can come in many forms like plant-based dyes, mineral pigments, vegetable dyes and synthetic colorants. Some children can be allergic or sensitive to natural plant-based products. There are many great crayon options for you to pick from today.

Colour Blocks™ sustainable solutions for crayons!

My solution to this problem must solve the problem at hand, but not create a new problem with more waste. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Practicing the 3 R’s and teaching communities to recycle crayons responsibly is one solution. Recycling can help to all those crayons going to our landfills or laying around homes. I recycle old  crayons into beautiful new Colour Blocks™ truly an earth-friendly crayon.

Profits from Colour Blocks™ provides free coloring experiences for young children. Environmental education, kid learning events and art events throughout the West Coast. Donations go to non-profit organizations that are working with educating the public about global issues. Colour Blocks™ collaborates with communities like public schools, pre-schools, boy and girl clubs and scouts, young children environmental foundations, families and restaurants all across the nation. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle by donating your old crayons!

How you can recycle old crayons! 

Information is available on how to recycle crayons by contacting Colour Blocks™

• Educational literature on why you should recycle crayons

• Ways to collect and get old crayons to Colour Blocks™ or other crayon recyclers

• How to organize school districts to recycle their crayons for pick-up

• Group community ideas on how to collect old crayons for recycling

•. Guest educational speeches by Colour Blocks™ on how to Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.

• How to make recycled crayons at home

Colour Blocks™ has a huge educational message to spread to the public. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Think Sustainability!

For information email: treepassion@gmail.com or write: P.O. Box Solana Beach, Ca 92075

Reduce. Recycle. Reuse.

Recycling old crayons is a great solution to just throwing them away. Children can reuse these recourses for creating new art. Help Colour Blocks™ spread the word in your community. Teaching young children today about natural resources will help our environment in the future!

• Truly Eco-freindly crayons!

• Handcrafted and recycled out of previously loved crayons!

• Stackable square blocks children love to play with!

• Makes beautiful coloring marks!

• Colour Blocks™ won’t break easily!

• Colour Blocks™ won’t roll off the table!

• Children can color wide areas easily!

• Made with non-toxic crayons!

• Designed in beautiful natural earthy tones!

• Hand crafted colour mixing technique by designer & art teacher, Spramani E’Laun

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