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Eventually any pristine box of crayons ends up as a pile of busted stubs at the bottom of a craft bin. In the U.S., between 45,000 and 75,000 pounds of crayons end up in landfills every year and traditional paraffin-based crayons are not biodegradable. Instead of trashing broken crayons, give them a new, colorful life by creating rainbow crayons.
This simple DIY project can also be a fun lesson for kids on the states of matter. The crayons start as a solid, melt into a liquid at temperatures above 120 degrees Fahrenheit, and return to a solid when removed from heat.
[Related: How to Frankenstein old wax scraps into a totally new candle]
The best part about creating recycled crayons is that you’re not limited to boring old pencil-like shapes. With silicone molds, you can create crayons in the shape of Darth Vader, a Lego minifig, flowers, sea stars, or even Han Solo frozen in carbonite.
What you’ll need to make recycled rainbow crayons
Ingredients
- 2-3 cups broken crayons with paper removed
Note: You can use new crayons, but where’s the fun in that?
Tools
- Silicone molds. We suggest Star Wars, Lego, flowers, or Emoji.
- Oven
- Baking sheet or wire rack
- Oven mitts
- Optional: Water, bowl, scissors
Activity Time
- 30-60 minutes, depending on your method for peeling the paper off the crayons.
Directions
- Pre-heat oven to 250-degrees.
- Peel paper off crayons.
Note: To speed up the process, soak crayons in tub of water first. To slow down the process (and keep little hands occupied), don’t soak. - Break or cut crayons into 1/4 to 1/2-inch pieces.
- Arrange crayon chunks in silicone molds. You’ll want to slightly overfill the molds.
- Place molds on baking sheet or wire rack.
- Bake crayon chunks for 8-10 minutes, or until all crayon chunks are melted.
- Remove molds from oven and allow to cool (approximately 25 minutes at room temperature or 10 minutes in the freezer).
- When fully cooled, carefully remove the crayons from the molds.
That’s it! Now grab a coloring book or sheet of paper and color away.
