How to Recycle Eggshells

In the same manner that we can recycle milk cartons, water bottles and soup cans, we can also recycle eggshells. Before you drop them into the trash bin, consider the many ways to reuse the natural packaging your sunny side ups and omelets came in.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Eggshells

1. Improve your compost. Include the eggshells in your compost heap. They are all-natural with no oils or grease and will add valuable minerals to the resulting fertile soil.

2. Deter slugs and snails. Crush the eggshells and spread them around the base of your delicate plants.

3. Fertilize. Mix ground eggshells with your garden soil for added calcium, potassium, phosphorus and sulfur that help make plants strong and healthy.

4. Feed the birds with calcium. Wash the eggshells and let them dry. Crush them into fine pieces and mix some with the seeds you feed the chickens and wild birds. Eggshells have calcium that is good for birds. Also, the shell pieces act as grit, much like the sand and pebbles that they swallow and keep in their gizzards to help grind their food.

5. Make a mosaic. Crush or snap cleaned and dried eggshells into small pieces. Dip or soak them in food coloring, then arrange them into decorative designs to be glued onto picture frames, trinket boxes, centerpiece bowls and other craft items.

6. Make chalk. Grind half a dozen cleaned and dried eggshells into a fine powder. Mix with a teaspoon of hot water and a teaspoon of flour. Roll the paste mixture into a stick shape and wrap in paper towel. Let it dry completely over a few days, then unwrap and you'll have homemade chalk that you can use on the sidewalk or driveway.

7. Make textured paint. Crush or grind cleaned and dried eggshells and mix a small amount with paint to add texture and 3D effect to a piece of artwork.

Tips & Warnings

• Other ways to use eggshells in home crafts are to turn them into candleholders (clean out eggshell, insert a wick and half-fill with melted candle wax) or tiny planters (fill eggshells with potting soil and plant seeds).

• Eggshells have sharp edges that can injure delicate and sensitive skin. When crushing eggshells, place them inside a plastic bag and roll a bottle or rolling pin over it.

Resources

• Alberta Egg Producers: Eggshell Mosaic
• EasyFunSchool.com: Eggshell Chalk