10 Amazing Ways to Recycle Plastic Bottles

13 Amazing Ways to Recycle Plastic Bottles

Plastic bottles have become a common feature of our lives and are used for various purposes, from your favorite soda bottles to your shampoo or laundry detergent containers.

They are hardy and convenient but unfortunately, these bottles can take up to 450 years to decompose (hear that? 450!). Recycling these plastic bottles helps the planet by conserving resources, reducing pollution, and saving energy.

In our bag of fun DIY projects, we have ten unique ways to recycle your plastic bottles to help the planet while making those bottles useful again as containers, watering jugs, and even a footstool!

1. Make a watering can

If you have a garden and you want to be an environmentally conscious plant parent, you can totally make your own watering jug with any large empty plastic bottles you may have lying around your home. It’s really easy too!

Steps

Get your empty plastic container.
Poke a few holes on its lid and one hole in the handle ( or anywhere else above your preferred waterline),
And boom, you have a watering jug.
Test it out to make sure it works. Does it? Of course, it does!

At Toast, we’re only ever going to give you working solutions you can count on.

2. Don’t have a garden? Get into it with this vertical garden

A vertical garden is a great way to get into the gardening hobby, especially for beginners. Now, the end of the year may not be the best time to plant flowers, but you can try your hand at growing something easy you can actually eat like beans, cabbage, or herbs and vegetable sprigs. It’s good for the environment and is as chic as any Toast Creative Studios design.

Steps

First, pick out your vertical garden space, it could be a fence or a wall.
Then, get as many bottles as you can depending on how many plants you want.
Place each bottle horizontally and cut out a large hole in the middle which will serve as your ‘pot’.
Then anchor the bottles firmly to your structure with nails
Fill each bottle up with sand and get to planting.

3. You can spruce up your vertical garden with animal planters

To make a garlic planter, start by buying fresh garlic, and breaking the cloves (seeds) from it. Next, fill the bottle you got with soil and use your knife to cut out small triangular shapes on the sides. Push the cloves into these open sides and add a bit of water. You will have garlic plants sprouting in no time.

4. If you aren’t big on planting, you can make a piggy bank instead:

If you want a fun-looking yet useful DIY project, you can make a piggy bank. Kids especially are really gonna love this one. All you need is a plastic bottle, some paper for the ears and feet, googly eyes, and some paint.

The Steps

First cut up your plastic bottle like shown in the image below(make sure you don’t forget the money slot).
Then you paint the bottle the color you want your pig to be.
Slap on the googly eyes, paper ears and feet, and you are good to go,

5. Create a hanging snack holder

It’s actually an ‘anything’ holder but at Toast, we like snacks so an eco-friendly snack holder it is! You also don’t have to make just one, you can make as many as you need.

First, get your plastic bottles (large preferably) and use a marker to draw a big “O” shape at the shoulder of the bottles.
Then use a knife or box cutter to cut open the shape.
Hook the bottles firmly to a vertical structure with nails or just place them on a table.
Pour your snacks in (or paper clips, it totally depends on you), and it’s ready to dispense!

6. Make a holder for your utensils

One great thing about plastic bottles is that they are very resilient and that means they make great containers and ‘holders’. Whether you want to hang it or stand it, here’s a way for you to make a utensil holder.

The Steps

Get the plastic bottles you want to recycle into utensil holders
Cut them in half crosswise
Then paint and decorate the halves with paint or glitter, don’t hold back
Stick the sides of the painted bottle halves together with a strong glue
Voila! You can now organize your cutlery however you want

7. Make a no-sew pencil case

Another way to deftly recycle your plastic bottles in a practical way is to make a no-sew pencil case with two plastic bottles, a zipper long enough to cover the circumference of your bottle, and some glue. Let’s get crafting!

The Steps

Get your bottle and figure out how long you want your pencil case to be.
Then note point and cut one bottle at that height
Get anotherbottle and cut it just a few inches above the bottom
After that, take a zipper and glue it on the inside rim of one half of the bottle then repeat with the other half once it is secure
Test the zip and now you have a new place to keep your pencils while saving the planet at the same time

8. Make a mini footstool out of used plastic bottles

Now, this is a more challenging DIY craft. It’s also going to require a lot of glue and many plastic bottles but on the bright side, is a great way to upcycle plastic bottles and help the earth go greener.

The Steps

Get a lot of large plastic bottles together and stick them together in the shape you want (round, square, any shape)
Cut out the shape of the footstool on two large pieces of sturdy hardboard
Stick them to the top surface and bottom surface of the stuck-together bottles
Then cut out pieces of foam the same shape as your footstool and stick them on securely as well
Go on to glue the fabric of choice all over the stool and your DIY project is complete

9. Make a super easy food container

Wanna know how to use plastic bottles to store your dry foods? Read on! You don’t need many materials for this project just your bottles, a cutting tool, and stickers or labels to decorate with

The Steps

Get your plastic bottles and cut them in two,a longer one to the base of the container and a shorter one to serve as the cover.
Fit them over each other and now you can use them to store rice, spaghetti, beans you name it!
Don’t forget to label each container or decorate them with stickers like below if you like that

10. Make yourself a phone charging caddy

Have you ever needed to charge your phone while you were out but your cord was too short? Or you just don’t like putting your phone on the floor? This DIY project is for you and the best part? It’s so easy!

The Steps

First choose your bottle, because it will be holding a cellphone it’s better to choose a bottle that is flatter rather than round e.g a shampoo bottle
Measure your device against the bottle so you can see if it will fit the device or not when you cut it
After this, decide how high you want the front of the holder to be.
Then make a line with a pen across the front at that point. Then turn the bottle around and continue the line to the back but curve the back upwards.
Cut the shape out of the bottle.
You can go ahead to decorate your bottle with paint, or you can even glue some fabric on to make it look cute
Once dry, your upcycled phone caddy is ready to use!

We would *love* to see all the different ways you have recycled your plastic bottles at home. If you make anything from this article, post it on any social media platform and tag us! Use the hashtag #InspiredByToast

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