Posted by Snow in 
We continue to explore the wealth of options for recycling big moving boxes and corrugated brown paper boxes conventionally used for shipping and moving. Kids and adults can make savvy use of original equipment shipping boxes and discarded grocery store and mall product boxes long after the freight has hit the shelves.
Otherwise they would go to waste. Boxes made of paper filling landfills is unneeded when there are consumer level re-use opportunities everywhere on the scale of corrugated paper products like boxes which are used worldwide.Boxes make great forts, costumes, puppet stages, and whatever else creative minds can think up.
Large moving boxes are usually discarded and destroyed and thrown in dumpster to crowd landfills. Capturing clean boxes before they are put out by the dumpster takes one phone call to the store manager. They may even thank you for doing so. Fresh boxes are material for kids’ projects and home entertainment family fun.
The boxes that come for shipping uses make excellent re-use fodder. Grocery and other stores have to pay people to disassemble and razor them flat for trash removal! The easy cutting and material usage make them great-The possibilities are amazing!
How to get the boxes? Show up when clerks are stocking the shelves, and ask the manager if you can reduce his dumpster footprint and waste removal area headache by taking some disassembled cardboard with you.
Look the boxes over for bugs, spiderwebs, pests, and food or product spills. Keep a stack going and by the time the kids get out of school or a rainy day creeps up, the inventory of project ready craft friendly boxes will be standing by.
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3. Puppet Show
Cut a rectangular hole in the cardboard box largest in the group. Assemble an awning to tape or staple against the top. This shades the puppets in the sun and keeps the interior dramatically shaded so puppet strings don’t show.
Add height if possible to the puppet theatre by adding boxes “connecting” at the sides. Position the puppet theater box below a stairwell if there is not sufficient room inside for side mounting of puppets. Paint the box or decorate with wrapping paper or foil.
4. Transport Capsule
A custom home spaceship cane be made using silver paint or foil stretched across the box. If the largest box is not small enough for a group capsule, cut the box in half length wise and extend the top cover over a space capsule bed made of other boxes. Get creative with the internal design of the space capsule.
Use other smaller boxes or chairs to plan the “steering” and other internal space capsule functions. Cut or fashion a special door out of large box planes and make cutout windows of other boxes filled with midnight blue paint interiors and stars and planets.
Use garden equipment covered in aluminum foil for “levers” and space navigation tools. Paint on or cover with saved (recycled!) aluminum foil covered smaller boxes to serve as control panels. For extra fun, use a small laptop with a screen saver of planetary navigation or stars and space as a desktop “command center”.
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