Have you heard about the group of California schoolchildren who want Crayola to establish a recycling program for their markers? To make a long story short, Crayola won’t do it (yet), and Crayola doesn’t want you to recycle their markers, either, because breaking down a Crayola marker for recycling would require taking it apart, exposing tiny pieces that are potential choking hazards and thus freaking out Crayola’s lawyers. However, you CAN recycle most of a Crayola marker. It’s messy work, and it’s time-consuming, but it’s also a great lesson for kids (and for us!) about the obligations of responsible consumerism. Here’s how to do it:
Crayola publicly admits that their marker caps are made from polypropylene, a #5 recyclable plastic, so first set all your marker caps in the recyclable pile. Easy! Although Crayola’s PR people won’t say it (they don’t want you to disassemble their markers, remember?), if you look up the materials specifications of Crayola markers (read page 5, under the marker specifications, in this Crayola school supplies catalog), you’ll see that the plastic barrels of Crayola markers are also made of polypropylene, a #5 recyclable plastic. To remove the barrel, look at the end of the marker to find the seam where a plastic plug has been inserted–it’s my guess that this plug is also #5 plastic, but I haven’t been able to confirm it, so I don’t yet recycle the plug. Use something sharp, such as the box knife that my seven-year-old is responsibly wielding (yes, the same seven-year-old who also had a black eye in my post last week, because I’m apparently one of THOSE mothers), to pry the plug off of the barrel. The plug is tight, but it isn’t glued in, so it really isn’t that hard to pry it off. Set the plug in the trash pile. Next » Using your fingertips if you don’t mind getting messy, or needle nose pliers if you do, pull the marker’s nib out and set it aside in the trash pile. Now that the barrel is open at both ends, thump the bottom on a tabletop until the ink well slides down enough for you to be able to grab it, too, and pull it out of the barrel. For fun, you can also slice this ink well down the middle with your box knife and pull out the stuffing, which usually still has at least some ink inside. My kiddos love to play with these for a bit, rubbing them onto paper or onto their hands, with which they can then make surprisingly effective handprints and fingerprints. When you’re finished playing, the ink wells also go in the trash pile. When you’ve completely broken down the marker, you’ll have a pile of nibs, ink wells, and end plugs to throw away, and a pile of Crayola marker caps and plastic barrels to recycle. Our city offers curbside recycling of all plastics #1-#6, but because these barrels and caps don’t have the #5 stamped on them, I save them and take them personally to my local recycling center when I have big pile. I also bring that Crayola spec sheet that I showed you earlier as proof of the plastic’s recyclability, just in case the manager doesn’t happen to remember the crazy lady who brings in her broken-down Crayola markers in to recycle twice a year. Yeah, she always remembers me.
