How to Recycle Broken Crayons

There isn’t an artist or a child on the planet that doesn’t have a collection of broken crayons that aren’t the most desirable material to work with. Don’t throw them away! Recycle them into new and more interesting crayons!

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Broken crayons
• Small plastic containers to sort colors
• Glass jars, one for each color
• Pot of boiling water
• Candy molds, old muffin tins or ice cube trays
• Chopsticks or skewers

How to Recycle Broken Crayons

1. 
   Don't forget to remove all wrappers from crayons during this process.

   Sort out all the broken crayons by color into the small plastic containers. It doesn’t matter what shade the color it is – if you have light green and dark green, it’s green. Dump one color into separate glass jars.

2. 
   Don't boil the water with the glass jars in the pot.

   Place the jars of crayons into water that has already been brought to a boil. Keep the heat on medium and melt the crayons with the jars of crayons in the water bath. Stir frequently using the chopsticks or skewers.

3. 
   Candy molds are a very affordable option to consider.

   Pour the melted crayons into the molds. Fill each mold completely and set aside. Adding a small amount of one color first, and then covering it over completely with another can create multi-colored crayons.

4. 
   Keep track using a cooking timer.

   Wait about twenty minutes or so for the crayons to set up in the molds and cool off. Pop each crayon out of the molds and they’re ready to use.

Tips & Warnings

• Line mini-muffin tins with foil muffin cups and fill with the crayon wax to create party favors.
• Experiment with a lot of different molds and containers based on tastes and styles.
• This wax is hot, so if you’re working with children, supervision is a must.
• If you don’t think the molds have completely cooled, leave it alone or the whole project will be ruined.

[chicaandjo]

on 4/17/2008 We find the silicone ice cube trays from Ikea work great for this project. Here's a picture of some finished crayons we did with the triangle shape: http://www.chicaandjo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/crayon_11.jpg

[chicaandjo]

on 4/17/2008 We find the silicone ice cube trays from Ikea work great for this project. Here's a picture of some finished crayons we did with the triangle shape: http://www.chicaandjo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/crayon_11.jpg

[joyful327]

on 4/14/2008 I was going to write this but you beat me to it! :) Good article!!!! :)

[jennhollowell]

on 4/2/2008 That's an excellent point, Smidgen, thank you for bringing it up! I'm going to point this out next time I work on this project with my children - yet another opportunity to educate them! :-)

[smidgen]

on 4/2/2008 This is great to mix it up with color families within the crayon itself and then put a complimentary color in and Bam! you have something shocking!! Great article!