When an inventive father from California discovered that used crayons in restaurants get thrown away, he thought of a perfect way to repurpose it.
Bryan Ware was celebrating his birthday with his wife and son in a restaurant in 2011 when he made the shocking discovery. Appalled by what he learned, Ware came up with a genius plan to reuse the crayons. His idea gave birth to The Crayon Initiative which he founded in 2013.
PHOTO CREDIT: The Crayon Initiative
According to its website, The Crayon Initiative collects unwanted crayons from schools and restaurants and recycles it so kids in hospitals across California can use them. The wax from unwanted crayons are poured into special custom molds to create thicker crayons, which is suited for children with special needs.
“I can’t even fathom what these kids are going through. If these crayons give them an escape from that hospital room for ten minutes, we did our job,” Ware told The Mighty.
The Crayon Initiative has distributed more than 2,000 boxes of crayons to children’s hospitals in California. The non-profit organisation is hoping to make its first out-of-state delivery to a hospital in New York City by September 2015.
How to Make Recycled Crayons
Got plenty of broken and unwanted crayons in your house? The good news is you can recycle and turn them into colourful treasures that your kids can still use. You will only be needing broken crayons, a mini muffin pan, and an oven to do the trick.
Here’s an easy way to recycle forgotten crayons according to HGTV.
- Place the crayon pieces inside the muffin pan. Fill each circle at least half-full. You may opt to combine different colours in one circle.
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees F and bake the crayons for 15 to 20 minutes or until wax is fully melted.
- Remove the pan and allow the wax to cool completely.
- Flip the pan and firmly tap each circle to get the crayons.