Mar 27, 2026 · Abby Allen
Earth Day Crafts for Kids: 22 Upcycled Projects Using What You Already Have
Looking for Earth Day crafts for kids that don’t require a shopping trip? This list of 22 upcycled projects from GlueStick uses everyday recyclables—cardboard tubes, egg cartons, bottles, and paper—so you can practice sustainable crafting at home. Each idea is kid-friendly, low-prep, and a great way to teach reusing and recycling through hands-on creativity.
GlueStick was built around a simple idea from our founder: what if kids could get inspired by the supplies already around them—just by snapping a photo?
That’s exactly what GlueStick does.
- Snap a photo of what you have. Paper rolls, egg cartons, cereal boxes, scrap paper, buttons, yarn—our system recognizes over 300 different common household items
- Get project ideas that fit your supplies. Search for ideas using the supplies you already have, and see at a glance if you have everything you need.
- Turn reuse into a habit. Kids learn to look at “recycling” as a creative starting point, not a chore.
Why families love GlueStick’s approach:
- It saves money. You’re using what’s already in your home.
- It cuts down on last-minute store runs. Especially helpful when you’re short on time.
- It builds creative confidence. Kids get to say, “I can make something with this.”
- It keeps the mess manageable. When projects start with familiar household supplies, setup and cleanup are simpler.
Make sustainability part of your routine (not a one-off)
Treat the world well.
It was not given to you
By your parents.
It was loaned to you
By your children.
-Kenyan Proverb
Inside GlueStick, you’ll find projects that naturally support sustainable habits all year:
- Upcycling projects using cardboard, paper rolls, cartons, and packaging
- Seasonal crafts that reuse what you already have on hand
- STEM builds that teach problem-solving without disposable kits
If you want sustainable crafting to be more than an Earth Day activity, GlueStick helps you turn it into a year-round rhythm—creative, affordable, and better for the planet.
Ready to craft with what you already have? Create your GlueStick account and let your kids discover what’s possible with a single photo and a few everyday supplies.
Sustainable crafts: what to save in your recycling bin
Pick a category below, grab what’s already in your recycling bin, and search for projects in GlueStick with just the snap of a photo. One subscription gives your whole family access to hundreds of creative, confidence-building activities—without the single-use packaging or expense of one-time kits.
Our favorite sustainable materials include:
- Cardboard tubes and toilet paper rolls
- Egg Cartons
- Bottles and Cans
- Old Clothing
- Packing Materials
We keep a stash of these on hand at all times for quick and easy crafting all year round.
Cardboard tubes and toilet paper rolls
Cardboard tubes are a sustainable crafter’s dream material. There are an infinite number of creative ways to reuse them. Whether you’re upcycling them into toys, home decor, or home organization solutions, we know your kids will love making these recycled projects their own. GlueStick has a ton of creative uses for Toilet Paper Tubes and Cardboard Tubes. Here are a few of our favorites:
Craft Tube Crayon Organizer
Ages: 3–10 | Time: 15–60 min
This crayon caddy is great for keeping colors neat and tidy, and you can make it out of entirely recycled materials with very little help from your grownups.
Get Organized
Toilet Paper Roll Car Craft
Ages: 3–10 | Time: 20–40 min
Make a fun car out of a toilet paper roll that you can play with!
Get rolling
Toilet Paper Tube Octopus
Ages: 3–10 | Time: 30–45 min
Make your own silly octopus friend from a toilet paper tube! Curl the tentacles and paint it your favorite color to make it your own, Then, give it googly eyes and draw a big smile to watch your octopus come to life! The best part? You can do this whole craft by yourself! Cut, glue, draw, and play. When you're done, your octopus is ready for underwater adventures. Make it swim, wiggle its arms, or create a whole ocean family! You'll love this if: You like ocean animals, you want to make something you can play with right away, or you love crafts you can do all on your own What you'll learn: Cutting skills, following steps, being creative, and turning recycled stuff into awesome toys.
Make an ocean friend
Cardboard Tube Robots
Ages: 3–10 | Time: 15–30 min
Your bathroom is hiding an army of robots! Turn your empty toilet paper tubes into fun robots ready to protect your house from any invader.
Build your robot
Simple Cardboard Tube Fox
Ages: 3–8 | Time: 15–20 min
Make your own friendly fox from the simplest of “junk” craft supplies: a cardboard toilet paper roll! You can make quiet a few things from cardboard tubes, and lets face it, TP rolls are always popping up at your house.
Craft your fox
Toilet Paper Roll Flower Craft
Ages: 5–10 | Time: 20–30 min
Make a colorful flower craft using toilet paper rolls and tissue paper. Hang it in a window and let the sun shine through!
Make flowers
Glow Lanterns
Ages: 3–10 | Time: 10–20 min
Create your own glowing character show! Take a toilet paper roll, cover it with clear tape, and draw your favorite characters or cool designs on the tape. When you're done, shine a light through the roll and watch the designs light up! It’s like turning your roll into a magical glowing lantern!
Start Glowing
Balloon Pom Pom Launcher
Ages: 5–12 | Time: 5–10 min
Ready to become a launching expert? Let's build an amazing pom pom shooter that'll have you aiming, launching, and giggling for hours! This super simple STEM project turns basic household supplies into an awesome indoor game. Test your aim, create target games, or just see how far you can launch. Your launcher works using stored energy! When you pull back the balloon, you're storing energy. When you let go, that energy transfers to the pom pom and launches it forward. It's physics made fun! Try experimenting. Do large pom poms fly better than small ones? How well do balls of aluminum foil or crumpled paper fling? Are there certain techniques to make objects launch extra far?
Launch CreativityEgg cartons
When we started crafting with egg cartons, our household started eating a lot more eggs! They are an incredibly fun and versatile material to work with. There are five egg carton crafts in GlueStick at the time of posting, but we’ve got plans to upload so many more. Do you have ideas for this phenomenal material that you want to share? Join our Activity Author program and get paid for your contributions!
Egg Carton Animal Portraits
Ages: 7–12 | Time: 20–60 min
Turn egg cartons into adorable animal friends. All you need is a little imagination, some paint markers, and pretty paper and you'll have a super silly menagerie to hang on your wall. What new friends will you create?
Get Cracking
Beehive & Bumble Bee Recycled Egg Carton Craft
Ages: 3–7 | Time: 30–45 min
Make a beehive and bumble bee using recycled materials. This is a fun activity for spring, Earth Day, and learning about bees. This activity works best with a very large egg carton, like the ones from an 18, 30, or 60-count package.
Buzz on over
Egg Carton Seed Starters
Ages: 3–12 | Time: 15–25 min
Turn an empty egg carton into tiny seed-starting pots. It’s a simple Earth Day activity that teaches kids how plants grow—and it reuses something you’d normally throw away.
Get GrowingBottles and cans
Shimmering Soda Can Garden Stakes
Ages: 6–10 | Time: 15–30 min
Transform empty soda cans into magical garden decorations! Watch your plants make new butterfly and heart friends that sparkle in the sunlight. This project turns trash into treasure - perfect for your indoor or outdoor green buddies. This project uses sharp knives and the aluminum can can be sharp. Make sure to do this project with a grown up. You may want to wear a pair of gloves to keep your fingers safe.
Add some shimmer
String Telephone Experiment
Ages: 6–10 | Time: 10–20 min
The Guinness Book of World Records says the longest FUNCTIONING tin can phone was made by someone in Japan in August 2019. It went 242.626 meters, or 796 feet! That’s almost three football fields long! Sadly, there’s no details on how the phone was made or what materials they used, but maybe with some experimentation you can recreate their success at home. Be sure to hold the string as taut as possible for the best results, and experiment with a variety of materials to see what works best for you.
Start talking
Recycled Bottle Bowling
Ages: 3–12 | Time: 5 min
Turn empty bottles into a fun bowling game! Set up your pins and see how many you can knock down. Experiment with different sized balls and bottles.
Strike up some fun
Soda Bottle Space Rocket
Ages: 5–10 | Time: 20–30 min
Turn an empty soda bottle into a fun rocket to play with! It's a great way to recycle old bottles and lids into new toys.
Blast offClothing
Upcycled clothing never goes out of style, and there are so many ways for kids to craft their own sustainable styles. But, old clothes can get turned into far more than just wearable art. We’ve put three of our favorite projects below, but we’re always adding new t-shirt, sock, and other sustainable project ideas.
Recycled T-Shirt Dog Toys
Ages: 5–12 | Time: 5–15 min
Recyle old t-shirts into braided toys for dogs. This is a great project to do for your pooch, or make a bunch and donate them to your local animal shelter or rescue.
Start Braiding
Construction Worker Vest
Ages: 5–10 | Time: 10–15 min
Hey there, future construction worker! 🚧 Ready to build something awesome? Today we're going to turn an old t-shirt into the coolest construction vest ever! You'll look just like the workers who build houses, roads, and amazing buildings. Let's get crafting! What makes this project special: You get to be a real construction worker AND help save the planet by reusing an old shirt that might have been thrown away. Plus, you can wear your vest for dress-up, Halloween, or anytime you want to feel super strong and ready to build!
It's work time!Paper and packaging materials
See how sustainable creative time can be when you reuse milk jugs, packaging materials, and magazines in innovative ways. These sustainable kids crafts are sure to keep them busy on Earth Day, a rainy day, or on a day off of school.
Stuck on You Bubble Wrap Pufferfish Card
Ages: 5–10 | Time: 30–45 min
Create a spiky-sweet pufferfish card using bubble wrap stamps! This underwater friend gets its perfect puffy texture from bubble wrap printing, making each card totally unique. Perfect for showing someone special how much you care!
Swim on over
Milk Carton Fairy Houses
Ages: 3–12 | Time: 15–60 min
What's not to love about an enchanting fairy house welcoming a new resident to your backyard? This project uses recycled and found materials to make a sturdy structure for your favorite fairy to visit.
Craft some magic
Magazine Picture Puzzle
Ages: 3–12 | Time: 10–30 min
Turn an old magazine picture into a puzzle you can solve again and again! Pick your favorite picture and transform it into your very own jigsaw puzzle. It's like having two activities in one - making the puzzle and solving it! As you get better at solving puzzles, you can cut your pieces smaller and smaller so the puzzle grows with you!
Start Puzzling
Butterfly Craft
Ages: 3–10 | Time: 20–45 min
Make a beautiful butterfly craft using a recycled milk jug and markers. These butterflies will look like they are glowing when you hang them in a window!
Flutter on overReady to start your kids’ sustainable crafting journey?
If your recycling bin is full, you’re already holding a craft supply stash. GlueStick helps you turn those “save it for later” materials into real projects your kids can do with confidence—step by step, ad-free, and designed for ages 3–12. Sign up for GlueStick today and let your kids snap a photo of what you already have, find a project that fits your supplies, and start making something they’re proud of. One subscription gives your whole family access to hundreds of creative, confidence-building activities—without the single-use packaging or expense of one-time kits.