On this page, you will find 20 original garbage truck coloring pages that are all free to download and print! For this series, we illustrated a wide range of garbage trucks, including big ones, small ones, side loaders, front loaders, recycling ones, easy-to-color ones, plus many more!
These printables are great for teachers and parents who are informing children about waste, how it’s managed, the different types of trash, the importance of recycling, and how vital garbage truck operators are in our community.
To start coloring any of these pages, click on any of the below pictures or links to open the PDF copy on a new page. Once opened, you can then freely download and print as many times as you like!
All these PDF coloring pages are on standard US letter size, but they also fit perfectly onto A4 paper sizes. Enjoy!
9 Craft Ideas To Do With Garbage Truck Coloring Pages
Here are ten cheap, fun, and creative things you can do with your completed coloring pages!
9. Party Decorations
If your little one is having a birthday party, why not get him or her in on the decorating action?
Starting a few weeks before the party, have your child color in the trucks of their choice.
Then you can either hang up all of the illustrations or cut out the trucks and use them as wall hangings or garland decorators and place them on tables or near the food.
To make the garbage trucks stand up on the tables, you could glue toilet paper rolls to the back.
8. Greeting Cards
Our garbage truck coloring printables are perfect for personalized greeting cards, whether it’s another child’s birthday or just a note to family or friends to say hello.
One of the ways you can make a card is to shrink the illustration to a fourth of its regular size using illustrator or paint software.
Then place the illustration in the bottom right corner and print it off. You’re going to fold the paper in half and then fold it in half again.
The illustration should be on the front page! Have your child color in the drawing and then write a sweet message on the inside!
7. Play Props
Stir your kids’ imaginations by encouraging them to turn one of our garbage truck coloring sheets into play props.
You can have them color in the trucks of their choice, reinforce them with cardstock or posterboard, and then cut them out.
From there, they can play with the trucks as is – perhaps on a mat or rug with roads on it? – or put them on craft sticks for easier handling.
6. Paintings
Inspire your kids to work with different mediums by having them paint instead of color in.
You can get all the supplies you’ll need at a craft store or even a dollar store – paints, paintbrushes, cups for water, shirts for smocks, small easels
(You can also make your own easels out of cardboard boxes if you have any lying around – which most of us do; instructions are here.)
5. Gift Bag Decorations
What better way to say Happy Birthday to a boy or girl or Grandpa and Grandma than with a gift placed inside a bag that has been decorated by your child’s own hand?
You can find plain gift bags at any dollar store; have your child color in the garbage trucks and cut it out, or, if the bag is large enough, have them color in the entire illustration.
Then paste it onto the front (and if they’re feeling ambitious, the back, too!) of the bag, and voilà – you have a totally personalized gift to give!
As an added activity, you could even have your child draw in and color different items associated with garbage trucks, such as garbage cans or garbage collectors.
4. Trash Collages
Print out one of the garbage truck sheets where there is a lot of space in the back – Simple Outline of a Garbage Truck To Color For Preschoolers is perfect!
Have the kids color in the truck and any of the backgrounds that they wish to, and then give them little bits of construction paper, craft pom pom balls, and/or buttons.
Invite them to glue the little bits onto their trucks in whatever fashion they desire – they can stick to one color, make it look like actual garbage, or make it pretty with multiple colors.
3. Moveable Trucks
For this craft, you’ll need to choose an illustration where the truck is totally on its side.
Then, you’re going to have the children color in the garbage truck and then carefully cut it out along the outline.
Once completed, you’re going to cut the truck right in the little space between the cab and the container.
Line them up so that they are slightly overlapping, and place them on a piece of construction paper.
Using an eyelet hole puncher, put a hole where the two pieces meet and insert a metal eyelet ring into the hole.
You can have the kids glue the cab in place but not the container – you’ll want that to be able to move!
2. Puzzles
Puzzles are a great craft, especially if you’re a teacher with a classroom full of kids.
Have the children color in the illustration and then draw puzzle-like pieces over it with Sharpie, adjusting for age and skill level.
Then the students can swap puzzles – the perfect rainy afternoon activity!
1. Garbage Truck Fact Booklets
Encourage children to look up three or four different garbage truck or waste management facts and write them onto the illustrations.
Get them to color in the pictures, and then when they’re doing it, you can go in with a three-hole punch or portfolio binder to make little fact booklets.