THE GOODS : ECONOTES : Club Eco Teaches Kids the Value of Recycling

The Los Angeles Children’s Museum is launching 1995 by unveiling Club Eco, a major, permanent exhibit offering hands-on experience in taking care of the environment.

“It’s really an environmental clubhouse for kids,” says marketing director Helene von Schreiber, and it’s for all ages.

Small children can learn to sort recyclables in trash, and there are eco-games for older kids. Everyone will enjoy the Paper-Power Pendant Machine, which demonstrates every step of a paper-recycling process as junk mail becomes slurry and is poured into a form to become a take-home pendant for each visitor.

The Gallery of the Recycled features backpacks, clipboards, T-shirts and shoes made from plastic and other debris that would ordinarily go into the trash. “We’ve chosen items that are common in children’s lives,” Von Schreiber says, “so they can see how they make choices in everyday things.”

The exhibit also includes a worm farm and an ant farm to show how creatures that live in the earth help out with recycling. There is a media center for teachers and parents with take-home recipes for making masks, puppets and other toys out of throwaway materials, and “tons and tons” of books, Von Schreiber says.

Museum officials believe that this exhibit, financed by Browning-Ferris Industries of California, is a first in Los Angeles. “This is a subject that is obviously important and all the polls show it’s a big issue for kids. We want them to see there’s a lot they can do to help the environment, regardless of their age,” Von Schreiber says.

The museum, at 310 N. Main near the Civic Center, attracts up to 250,000 children a year with its interactive exhibits. Admission is $5 for children and adults. Children under 2 are admitted free. Information: (213) 687-8800.

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And Off With the Old: If your Christmas tree is still dropping needles on the living room floor, you have one more weekend to recycle it.

Los Angeles’ seventh tree recycling program continues Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in nine drop-off locations scattered around the city. (Please remove the stand, tinsel and other decorations.)

For drop-off locations, call (800) 587-3356 . . . Also, if you want to dump old motor oil, paint or pesticides, the city’s Hazmobile starts the new year in Eagle Rock, where it will be parked today and Saturday and Jan. 12-14. Call (800) 988-6942 for a drive-through appointment.