Recycled art for young children · Est. [Year]

The Recycled Railway

Old plastic bottles and used train tickets, turned into a train by kindergarteners.

A train made from painted plastic bottles: a black engine with a chimney followed by blue, pink, yellow and red coaches, laid on a curved classroom table.
Started by Aditi Kadam First workshop: [School name], [City], October 2026

Where it started

The platform bins

During my internship with Indian Railways, I saw how much waste a busy railway leaves behind every day.

Bins on the platforms overflowed with paper tickets, plastic bottles and packaging. Most passengers stepped past without a second look. To them it was what was left of a journey that was already over.

To me it showed how quickly we stop seeing value in something once it has done its first job. I kept asking one question: what if this material could be used to spark imagination instead?

The idea

Two sessions, one train

The Recycled Railway is a two-part workshop for children aged four and five. It brings together art and recycling, and it starts with the children's ideas before any materials come out.

Session one

Imagine

Before we touched any materials, we talked about what a train could be. At four and five, children have not yet learnt many rules about what is possible, so their ideas go anywhere.

Each child drew their dream train with no limits. We got trains with extra wheels, trains that ran on magnets, and trains carrying princesses and superheroes. Then we talked about how every idea, however wild, is a plan that can become real if you act on it.

Aditi sitting with a kindergarten class in red uniforms. The children hold up their pencil drawings of trains, with the finished bottle train on the table in front of them.
The class with their dream-train drawings and the finished train.

Session two

Build

In the second session we turned the drawings into something real. I brought in plastic water bottles and used train tickets, all cleaned beforehand, and the classroom became a studio.

Together we sorted, painted, tore and glued. The bottles became an engine with a chimney and cab, and four coaches, each painted in its own colours.

  • Used plastic water bottles for the engine and coaches
  • Old train tickets for the details
  • Black chart paper for the wheels and frames
  • Paint, glue and a lot of small hands
Side view of the bottle train along the edge of the table, the black engine in front and the coloured coaches curving behind it.
One engine and four coaches.
Close-up of the black engine's chimney and cab, with the painted coaches out of focus behind.
The engine, made from a bottle and chart paper.

What the children took away

Nothing is waste by default

Something does not become worthless just because its first use is over. In every painted bottle and torn ticket, the children saw that value is something we add through care and effort.

Value is not what an object has. It is what we make of it.

What I learnt

Art and planning belong together

Whether I am working with numbers or a pile of waste, the skill is the same: seeing what something could become, then doing the work to get it there. When we act on our imagination, even a used ticket can teach us something about rebuilding with care.

The kindergarten class with Aditi, holding up their train drawings behind the bottle train.
The Recycled RailwaySingle journey
WasteImagination
Class
Kindergarten
Ages
4 and 5
Sessions
2
Children
[20]
Built
1 engine, 4 coaches
Date
Oct 2026
Admit one school

For schools

Bring the Recycled Railway to your school

  1. Get in touch

    Write to me with your school, the class and a few dates that suit you.

  2. Collect

    Your class collects clean plastic bottles and used tickets for a week before the visit.

  3. Imagine

    Session one: every child draws their dream train.

  4. Build

    Session two: we build the train together, and it stays in your classroom.

Invite us to your school or email [email address]
Stations so far
SchoolCityMonthClassChildren
[School name][City]Oct 2026Kindergarten[20]
Next station: your school?