Carton Flowers and Other DIY Egg Carton Crafts

Recycling is something that we all know we are supposed to do. We know it’s better for the environment, but it can also be a great way to stretch a dollar. You may be interested in recycling, but maybe you need some ideas to help you start. Well, HomElectrical wanted to give you a couple ideas with one of the most common household items: an Egg Carton!

Here are just a few of the ways you can repurpose, reuse, and recycle your egg cartons rather than just throwing them away after you have used them. Just for clarification, these ideas are for paper-based egg cartons and not Styrofoam based egg cartons.

One of the best outdoor activities during the early fall season is to have friends and family over for a bonfire. You can start the fire simply by putting flammable materials like dryer lint, pencil shavings, sawdust, or any other organic materials that make great kindling into a paper egg carton. You can cut the egg carton into single cups, pack them with whatever kindling you decide to use, and stack them around logs and twigs.

Paper-based egg cartons are just another great addition to the compost pile! Just be sure to shred the carton up really well so it can break down quicker and turn into nutrient-rich soil. Egg cartons that are paper-based can be exactly what your compost pile needs because they break down into nitrogen, which is essential for successful compost .

This is an excellent way to reuse egg cartons while simultaneously getting an early start on your garden. All you need to do is place a little soil in each carton cup with a seed. Once the plant begins to sprout, you can transfer your seedlings to your garden or greenhouse. This is a great way to give plants as gifts for birthdays or during the holidays.

It is easy to create your own Mancala board with an egg carton. All you need is an empty egg carton and plenty of Mancala pieces. The mancala pieces are placed in the cubbies of the carton and then moved throughout in order to gain points. Mancala, one of the oldest games in the world, is a classic strategy game that requires players to move their pieces (examples include: marbles, stones, beads, etc.) along the board to an end zone. Each move costs the player one piece, so to reach the end zone, the player would deposit one piece in each cup. Ending on the end zone allows the player an additional turn. The game is won when one player has successfully cleared his side of the board.

As far as arts and crafts flowers go, you can actually do some pretty interesting things with egg cartons. Sure, you’ve got a few cute attempts but then you also have works of art like this that really allow you to see the lengths of talent some people have at recycling.

That’s our list of cool Egg Carton Recycling Ideas! How do you reuse your egg cartons? Show us on Twitter or Facebook and let us know if we missed any other cool ideas!