Recycling Tips: 6 Great Uses For Those Egg Cartons

By Author: Bruce Tucker
Total Articles: 174
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I love eggs for breakfast, as do many people. However eggs also produce waste that eventually could end up in a landfill. For starters make sure you compost those egg shells. Dig a hole and bury them (with other food scraps). Worms will love you for it by producing nutrient rich castings.

That's the easy part, but what about that darn egg carton. If your egg cartons are made of cardboard type of material then can simply put them in your recycle container for cardboard. If they are made from Styrofoam then you need to other solutions. I have listed a few below.

Seed starter
You can also use the cardboard style for this as well. Put some potting soil in each cup, then place one to two seeds in the potting soil, cover the seeds with some of the potting soil. After the seed have sprouted, push up on the bottom of the cup to remove it and transplant it either outside or to another, bigger pot. If you were using the cardboard variety you can cut out the cup from the carton and transplant the plant and cup to your new area.

Easter egg storage
Do you have those plastic Easter eggs for decoration ...
... or Easter egg hunts? Instead of storing them in a plastic bag, use your egg cartons instead.

Paint Palette for kids
Do your kids like to paint? Then put a little paint (environmentally safe paint) in each cup so you can regulate how much of each color each child gets. This way they do not go through too much of one color by constantly squeezing the tube or pouring from the bottle.

Use a Jelly Mold
Here's a neat little trick someone told me recently. For their children's 1st grade class parties she fills each cup with jello and puts it aside until it is finished congealing. Then the kids can pop them out and have small jello snacks.

Ice Cube Tray
Don't try this with cardboard variety as they will leak, but with the Styrofoam variety fill the cups up with water and put in your freezer. When frozen you have some really neat ice cubes for your next outdoor barbecue.

Packing Material
Instead of using Styrofoam packing peanuts or bubble wrap, use your Styrofoam to secure objects during shipping so they do not break. If you are shipping large packages then you will need a bunch of them, but that is ok, you have been saving them before you throw them out since there is not hurry to have them end up in your local landfill just yet.

These are just a few that I have gone into detail with as far as what you can do to use and reuse those egg cartons before you end up throwing them away. I always recommend however if at all possible buy your eggs that come in the cardboard variety egg cartons. These cartons are more readily biodegradable and have many more valuable uses then their Styrofoam counterparts, such as turning them into fire starters.
About the Author:
Mr. Tucker is a regular contributor on Bukisa, an online community for writers that pay you for your articles. You can also follow him on Twitter.