December Top Tips | 10 ways to re-purpose a plastic bottle

Welcome to December!

We thought it would be cool to find 10 ways you can use a plastic bottle even after you have refilled it gazillion times, so you don't waste all the plastic . Because, even if you try to avoid plastic bottles at all costs, you will inevitably end up using hundreds of them throughout your life. The impact on the environment is undisputed, from the land animals to the creatures of our seas, plastic bottles can have a detrimental impact. But we can reuse them in lots of fun ways, here are our ten favourites. Have a good December and a great new year, you'll hear from us!

1. Bird Feeder

At one of our blog meet-ups, we actually made a bird feeder out of an old plastic bottle, so this is definitely one we can vouch for. It's super simple, as long as you have some good scissors to cut the bottle and a suitable place to hang it. Below is a photograph of ours for some inspiration, and there are plenty of resources online to help you make your bird feeder from a plastic bottle! Now we aren't the most creative bunch, hopefully, you can make yours slightly more visually pleasing.

2. Planter

This is probably one you've heard of, but just like the National Trust in the UK used to make us plant cress in our empty cardboard lunch bags, you can plant herbs or salads in the base of a plastic bottle. It can be a really effective way to reuse your bottles and get a crop of something too! Growing things on windowsills is very easy and doing it in a plastic bottle means you have nothing to loose. You can even try and find a particularly pretty bottle and hang it up.

3. Travel box for toothbrush

Naming this one is weird. If you take the lid of a plastic bottle and cut it in half, you can roll your toothbrush, toothpaste and a little towel into it. Close the bottle and put the lid on; you now have a somewhat waterproof container that keeps your toothbrush well clear of your dirty underwear.

4. Mobile or hanging decoration

there are these plastic bottles that are slightly tinted in one colour, collect several of those and cut long strips of them around and around. They make cool wind spirals. or you can paint parts of a bottle and hang them on a mobile, cutting out specific shapes. You can make basically anything look nice. That goes as a general statement as well, I would say.

5. Storage for workshops

In your workshop, garage or shed, there is a huge mess. Don't even start pretending. Everything is lying around and getting dusty, stepping on those bolts really hurts and you can't ever find the right-sized screw. If you cut an opening in the front of a plastic bottle and hang it up, you can use it to store whatever is lying around and simulate tidiness. You can use different plastic bottles for different bolts, nails or whatever and be really proud of yourself for cleaning up. Even if you haven't, that's what I do, and it makes me feel much better about myself. You can also paint it or decorate it in another way, then it even looks nice.

6. Lantern

When I was about 7, I made this really cool torch lantern from a plastic bottle, for which you need a relatively big stick, a bottle, a bit of string, a sharp knife, glue, a fairy light or a candle and some colourful paper. First, cut off the bottom of the bottle in a wavy line, and turn it over, before cutting bits of orange, red and yellow paper and sticking it on there like flames (With the cap down!). Unscrew the cap and fit the bottle on the stick, wrapping the string around it, just for the sake of beauty. If it doesn't hold, add some glue too. Just pop your light source into it and some lucky child has a really cool torch lantern!

7. Maraca

Making maracas out of plastic bottles is actually really fun, and you can experiment a lot with them. I would recommend using small plastic bottles for that and painting them with colours you can't see through, then pouring in whatever you want: Sand, pebbles, rice (uncooked!), beans (same), shells, little bits of plastic. You name it, it all sounds cool!

8. Trashbin

You can make a trashbin out of plastic bottle caps, but you need A LOT of patience for that. If you collect lots of caps of different colours and clue them all together, you can not only come up with a specific way you want to colour your trashbin but also how you want to shape it. But it's probably a good idea to take bits of the actual bottles and stick them inside of the trashcan so all your trash doesn't fall out of the cracks. Don't get too creative with the shaping part, you don't want to disturb possible visitors...

9. Collection station for pieces of glass

This summer I saw this cool thing, where someone had hung up a plastic bottle with a little opening at the top under a tree called the emergency room of pieces of glass, (Sounds better in my language) the general idea being that people can throw bits of glass they find on the way in there so no one steps on them. It's a really cool thing to have in a place where lots of people walk around barefooted, especially when there are lots of kids around.

10. Egg Yolk Sucker

This is a strange idea, and I haven't yet tried it, but it could be fun, if you have tried it let us know about it! All you have to do is hover your empty plastic bottle over your cracked egg and gently squeeze it. Then release as the egg yolk is sucked up into the bottle and quickly turn the bottle over before it has a chance to escape again! Way faster than slowly running it from one shell to the next. but make sure to wash the bottle, you probably know how bad rotten egg stinks.

Hopefully, you enjoyed this, let us know if you tried any of these ideas and what you thought of them! Have a great time!

Next year, we will be discontinuing the Top Tips series. It has been a cool series to write but now it's time for something new. Here's the vote so that you can decide what we do next year!

Your Green World Team💚

Sources:

I got this video without a link from a friend since I can't really source it, I will attach it at the bottom, it has lots more cool ideas!

https://www.diybunker.com/68-diy-recycle-project-ideas-thatre-totally-genius/

Images:
Bird feeder: This image is owned by a blog editor.

Video:

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Ecosia

We all need to do something to save our planet: it is no use just leaving it to Greta Thunberg! She is very inspirational, yes, but she can only do so much. She isn't superhuman! The climate crisis is up to us; up to you. We all have to get stuck in. Research, learn, discover and most importantly: never give up! The world's animals need us. The world's trees need us and a simple way to do this is to switch to Ecosia. Ecosia is a search engine but it plants trees while you search the web. Okay, it doesn't have as many websites as google so you may want to have google as a backup but it plants trees: this is your opportunity to make a simple change. Just google Ecosia and search to plant trees. Make a difference. Image: This image is owned by Binyamin Mellish on pexels.com .

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