Amazing Ways to Re-use Baby Food Pouches

Baby food pouches are super convenient for on-the-go snacking. Also, at times it made feeding twins a whole lot easier when I didn't have to spoon feed two cranky, hungry babies at the same time. You can just imagine the number of pouches that we've gone through in our house. As a result, I had more pouches that I knew what to do with. Here are just some of the ways I've discovered to recycle and upcycle them.

What to do with used baby food pouches

1.  TerraCycle and Preserve them!
   TerraCycle makes consumer products from pre-consumer and post-consumer waste. It's free, simply join a baby food pouch brigade, collect your pouches in a box, print their free shipping label and mail them your waste. You can also ship old CapiSun pouches, diaper packaging, potato chip bags, Nespresso capsules and lots more. So far, I have recycled 978 pouches and in exchange gained 2,512 points, which is a $25.12 value towards purchasing eco-friendly products, or use your points to make a cash donation to a charity or donate your points to purchase honey bees to a needy family. Also, Plum Organics has teamed up with Preserve to collect and recycle the caps from their pouches and other brand's. So, start a collection at your school, office, or with friends and find a drop off location near you.
   
   
2. Teach Colors & Counting with a Sensory Box - I started saving the round tops of baby food pouches, every time I found a new color or shade. I took a couple of months to get 12 different colors. I then put them in a StrideRite Shoe Box that had Sesame Street characters on it, which I saved from a recent sneaker purchase. I then presented them the box, which they loved opening and seeing the rainbow of colors inside. Each day, we'd point and name the colors together and soon they would open the box and say the colors out loud without me even asking them to. They also enjoy lining them up, stacking them and throwing them. I do make them collect and put them away each night though. Surprisingly, they have't grown tired of this box yet, in fact, it has outlasted more expensive toys too. We have now progressed to counting the caps, for a new level of learning.
   
   
3. Use Caps to Make Crafts - Pinterest, as you can imagine has a lot of ideas for using the colorful caps to make picture frames, puppets, ornaments, necklaces and a whole lot more. Follow this board for more Pouch Cap Crafts & Activities.
4. Play-Doh Fun - You can use the caps as wheels for Play-Doh cars or use as Play-Doh cookie cutters. Best of all, unlike other cookie cutters or stencils, you can always toss these after kids are done playing, so no clean-up.
   
5. Tic Tac Toe - Collect two sets of colors and play some tic tac toe! Great for when traveling.
6. Make a Very Hungry Caterpillar
   

Any other ideas? I'd love to hear them :)

Speaking of recycling, Scrap Metal Prices in LA to Dispose of Metals in Greener Recycling, CA.