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April is Earth Month...and more specifically, April 22nd is Earth Day. I'm celebrating with a new recycling center...with some attractive recycling bin labels so everyone in the household can (ahem), respect the system. I'm sharing these free printable recycling bin labels for you to create your own recycling center in your home, too. Download yours below.

Do you have a recycling system in your home? These Free Printable Recycling Bin Labels are a great way for you to set up your own area...or even to improve the one you have. Having a home recycling system is such a great way to teach kids to recycle (and they get the bonus of sorting items, too).

Free Printable Recycling Bin Labels

In the city we currently live in, recycling isn't really a big thing. In fact, it's not really talked about much. It's a bit frustrating, but I still want to make sure we do our part to reduce, reuse and recycle our own household goods (yep, even if it means loading them into our cars and driving them to a remote recycling center week in and week out). I grew up in Austin, where recycling was the name of the game. So, I've tried to implement a lot of the ideas from my upbringing into our current household recycling system. Hoping I can get our city into this soon, too!

Household Recycling Center

Setting up a household recycling center isn't overly complicated. I started using one, along with these recycling bin labels, when my kids were quite young. I purposefully created these labels with item imagery so family members of all ages can take part in recycling. You can see on the above three labels that they each have a drawing of what goes into the bin, to the left of the wording (so, you're sneaking in some sight words with this activity!). And as I mentioned above, recycling is also a fantastic sorting activity for the younger kiddos (with parental help for breakable items).

There are actually four recycling bin labels/recycling categories included in this free set of printables (download options are included later in this post):

glass
metal
paper
plastic

These labels are 5"x5" and print two to a page.

Supplies for Your Recycling Center

recycling bin labels (download below)
white cardstock for printing your labels onto

I grab my white cardstock here on Amazon for the best price I can find.

double-sided tape for adhering labels to bins

I really like the foam mounting tape for these. Grab it here on Amazon.

optional: self-laminating sheets

If you'd like to really reinforce your labels and make them last for years, you can laminate them at-home, before you attach them to your bins.
These self-laminating sheets from Amazon here are what I've used in the past for projects like this.

a sturdy set of bins for sorting your items into

The ones I used are no longer available, but I found these similar ones here on Amazon.

Setting Up A Recycling Center

Simply download and print your recycling bin labels onto white cardstock.
Cut out each label.
If desired, you can laminate these with the sheets I mentioned above (optional).
Attach each label to the outside of the bins with your double stick tape or mounting tape.
Set your bins up in a good spot in your home that is easily accessible to all family members, but not in the way of foot traffic, and such.
And then...RECYCLE! Add this into your regular chore rotation for all family members.

Download Your Recycling Bin Labels

These labels come in two PDF sheets for simple, at-home printing.

Need Help with Downloading or Printing?

You can check out my complete video tutorial below covering how to both download and print your printables on either a Mac or a PC. There are details for printing on your home printer or even uploading to your local print shop. If you have additional questions, please see my thorough, step-by-step post here on printing your printables. It also includes budget-friendly, at-home printer suggestions, too.

I think putting together your own home recycling center is a great way to celebrate Earth Month or Earth Day (April 22). Be sure to grab the above free printable recycling bin labels and get going on this fun project for the entire family.

How do you recycle in your home?