Upcyle to make a Toothbrush Holder

TerraCycle and Colgate are coming together to offer free curriculim to teach kids to keep their teeth and their Earth healthy & clean. Colgate has worked for more than 15 years to help offer curriculim through the Bright Smiles Bright Future progran and has reached more than 50 million children and their families a year in 30 languages and 80 countries around the world. TerraCycles curriculim program will be released 3 times a year and is headed up by Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education and is meant to reach children K through 12 grades.

One thing that we all know is that the toothpaste tube runs out quite often. So what do we do with those numerous toothpaste boxes that we go through and normally think of as waste? Well here is a quick craft idea that you can do and use as either a toothbrush holder or possibly as a cute pencil holder.

•5 empty toothpaste tubes
•scissors
•ruler
•clear tape
•hole punch
•ribbon or plastic lanyard
•binder clips

Collect five Colgate® toothpaste tubes. Clean them by cutting off the bottom and slipping your scissors into the side seam. Flatten them out and clean with soap and water. Cut four tubes to 3 ½” x 4 ½” and one tube into a 3 ½” x 3 ½” square. Fold down the top ½” of the four rectangular tubes and tape. Take one of the four rectangles and punch holes every ½” along the two tall sides and along the short bottom side that is not folded. Use this punched piece as a template and punch holes in the exact same spots on the other three rectangular pieces. To punch the small square piece, line up the short punched side of the rectangle piece with any side of the short piece. Repeat punching holes for the other three sides of the square using the short side of the rectangular piece as a template. Then punch two holes near the center of the square. This will be the bottom of the container and the holes will be for drainage. Match up two large pieces and lace up one side tying it off at the top and bottom. Open it up. On one of the non-laced ends, attach to the next rectangular piece in the same way with the printed sides facing out. Repeat for each additional rectangular piece. When you’ve laced all four pieces, connect the two end pieces together and lace creating a cube with your pieces. Match up the square piece with the bottom of the container. Use binder clips to hold it in place. Lace around the bottom of the container and tie it off. You’re ready to put your upcycled toothbrush holder into action

If you have more than enough colgate toothpaste boxes then send them into TerraCycle where they will upcycle them into useable items