Mom shares 'genius' hack to extend the life of dried-up markers: 'What a good idea'

Old, dried-out markers that are unable to write and draw are typically immediately tossed out. One mom thought differently, as she shared a genius solution to keep the creativity that markers bring afloat.

The scoop

The creator (@taylortrew) took to TikTok to ask viewers if they were tossing their empty markers. She then suggested grouping the empty markers by color and putting them in a shallow cup of water for 24 hours. After that, you get no-waste DIY water paint that comes out largely the same as watercolor paint. 

@taylortrew 2 ingredient DIY craft-ivity 🎨 #parentinghack #crafty #medium #repurpose #reuse #recycle #nowaste #trash #treasure #momhack #kids #painting #arttok #artsy #arts #crafts #water ♬ Love You So - The King Khan & BBQ Show

It's a "two-ingredient DIY craft-ivity!" The mom wrote in the caption of the video.

How it's working

Often products that run out or break are easy to throw out. However, this mom is showing that there's always an easy solution that will help extend the life of products and correspondingly, the environment.

Keeping waste out of the community is vital to maintaining the environment. Reusing and recycling products is one way to do this. Not only will it establish less waste in the community, but it can save you money as well. Where in 10 states you can get paid back for recycling bottles, this mom also saved money on buying expensive watercoloring sets for crafting.

Roughly 400 million dry-erase markers and 1.6 billion disposable pens are thrown away each year, per Zip Code East Bay. These art supplies can then fill landfills and create harmful microplastics that pollute the land. This simple hack is an effective and simple way to keep the markers' lifespan.

A website that encourages the recycling of art supplies explains that "when plastics like markers or pens get discarded, they can end up in the ocean." This is because plastics are "highly chemically refined and petroleum-based, they can take hundreds of years to decompose, and even the smaller pieces they leave behind cause issues for all living things, especially humans."

What people are saying

Commenters were quick to praise the creator.

"I have a whole bag, what a good idea," wrote one commenter.

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Others were thrilled about how unique the project is as a win-win to the family, the bank account, and the environment.

"[This is] genius!" said another.

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