Homemade Non-Toxic Glue
Yes, you can bypass the smelly glue from the store and make your own! This is especially handy when you have little people that would enjoy stick and glue activities, but also enjoy eating the glue - urgh.
This glue recipe only contains 4 ingredients - cornflour, salt, vinegar and hot water. It makes a big batch, so if you would rather only try a small amount, you can easily half the amounts to start with.
1 cup cornflour
1 Tbsp white vinegar
2 tsp salt
4 cups of hot water
Place all ingredients in a medium saucepan and mix well with a whisk. Turn the stovetop on high heat and bring the mixture to a boil, whisking it constantly. If it is lumpy, you may need a little bit more water. Once the mixture becomes thick and translucent take off the heat and let it cool down in a heatproof container.
Sophie —
Hi Michael,
Yes, you’re right its a food based product, so it may go off after a while. We recommend using it on the day, but any excess glue can be stored in the fridge for up to a week :)
Sophie —
Hi Cat,
It’s best for light materials, so paper, cardboard etc stick well together, but you can also use it to stick flower petals, small feathers etc onto cardboard or clay creations :)
Sophie —
Hi Shana,
Oh yep, that’s properly a good question for your local recycling station, as this might differ between systems used by the facilities. Where we are in Australia, they’d wash all recycling thoroughly and this type of natural glue mixture would just wash off :)
Michael —
Hello, will it go moldy or turn green over time being a food product?
Cat —
Curious what you can glue with this glue?
Shana —
Nice recipe!! So I’ve been on a bit of a long journey this week trying to figure out how to create pretty much 100% recyclable packaging for my handmade gift site I’m getting ready to launch. Was all excited because I created some pretty upscale looking effects with nothing but used cardboard and just one sheet of recycled card stock and a couple other bits of paper. I used Elmer’s school glue thinking “oh hey cool- this is non-toxic so I can use THIS!” Well,turns out that if I’ve used glue between the papers and cardboard it’s no longer recyclable (though I am seeing some conflict of info on that online). So my question is this:
Do you happen to know if using these ingredients would render the packaging recyclable then? I certainly don’t expect you to know this as I realize it’s a very specific question regarding the science of recycling! So I assume perhaps contacting my local recycling dept here (San Jose, California) may be best but thought I’d ask just in case! TIA! 😊