Green Options » plastic bottles

Crafty Reuse: Ten Projects for Plastic Bottles

Becky Striepe — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:30:52 +0000

We use billions of plastic bottles every year, at a huge environmental expense. Sure, you can recycle them and feel a bit better knowing that they’ll be turned into products like Ecospun felt, but recycling requires energy and raw materials and not all plastics can even be recycled.

Why not divert all that plastic from the waste stream entirely by turning those old bottles into something new? Here are ten plastic bottle craft ideas to get you going!

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Recycled Plastic: Boats, Greenhouses, and More

Robin Shreeves — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:00:09 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, I ran the book fair at my boys’ school. This is the fifth year I’ve been in charge of the fair, and the fifth year that I’ve brought home the plastic table cloths that are part of the fair kit I’m sent. They are in perfectly good condition, and I bring them home to use to cover table tops when the kids paint and find lots of other uses for them.

I’ve been seeing a lot of clever uses around the internet for used plastic lately, particularly plastic bottles. Have you seen any of these?

The Recycled Plastic Boat. David de Rothschild is trying to promote the importance of recycling. He’s constructing a 60 foot catamaran and planning to sail it across the Pacific in April. The aim of The Plastiki is to

captivate, inspire and activate tomorrow’s environmental thinkers and doers to take positive action for our Planet and to be smart with waste, ultimately we hope to inspire people to rethink waste as a valuable resource. One person’s waste could be another person’s treasure.

The Plastic Bottle Greenhouse. A public school group from Australia, ECO (Environmental Care Organisation) built an entire greenhouse out of 1,652 plastic bottles. A steel frame supports the structure and the bottles are threaded on pvc pipes. The greenhouse will help to enhance the school’s environmental education program.

The school won the Make a Difference competition run by radio station C91.3, which supported the project.

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Home Made Soda is Fun, Fizz, and No More Plastic Bottles

Tina Casey — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 23:12:12 +0000

My family goes through a ton of seltzer and the occasional bottle of soda, so when I had a chance to try Soda-Club’s Sodastream home carbonizer, I couldn’t pass it up. First there was the appeal of stemming the flood of plastic bottles into my recycling bin every week. Then there was the greeniness of using local tap water instead of paying extra (a lot extra) to buy flavored fizzy tap water from somewhere else. And of course, there’s the excitement of having a cool new thing in the kitchen to play with.

So, how did the Soda-Club Sodastream stack up?

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Build Your Own Plastic Bottle Greenhouse

Ariel Schwartz — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 22:11:36 +0000

Do you have tons of plastic bottles lying around your house and excess backyard space? If so, you might want to look into building a plastic bottle greenhouse. The greenhouse idea was devised and brought to life by Blue Rock Station. For $5 (the electronic version is $4), you can buy instructions to build one yourself.

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