Salvaging with Lori: Plastic Bottles

Author: Lori Carter

Sorry to have been gone so long, but like everyone else, we sometimes have very busy days. Today’s subject “plastic bottles” was inspired by a Facebook post. Someone shared a pictorial project of how to make a broom from plastic 2 liter pop bottles. Now, some people save their bottles and take them to the recycling plant, but if you don’t have one near you, don’t have room to store them or don’t have a way to take them anywhere, you basically end up throwing them away, and they end up in a landfill somewhere.

Plastic pop bottles, 2 liters and smaller can be used in many ways. During the winter months, I had them lining my window sills with cuttings from my tomato plants. Many of them actually rooted, lasted the winter, and are now outside in the garden already producing fruit.

If you cut the bottom off, turn them upside down and push them in the dirt in a potted plant or next to plants in the garden, they can serve as conducters for water, straight to the roots. Drop a layer of gravel or rock in the bottom, poke a few holes for drainage, add some dirt and herb seeds and you will have your own little greenhouse for starting your herbs. Simple cut the top of to harvest your plants.

You can use them to cover tomato, pepper, and even lettuce sprouts by just cutting the bottom off and set them over the plants. Do a lot of crafting, store your beads, earring wires, little bells and other small items. Have a large collection of nails and screws laying around, use these bottles to sort them and store them. Need an extra funnel, cut off the top and take off the cap, presto, you have a funnel which can be used for food products or pouring oil and other liquids into your car.

Just about every object you throw away (other than rotted or outdated food) has a use in another form. Plastic does a lot of damage to our environment. I can’t express the anger and disappointment I have with people who throw their plastic pop bottles out of the car windows, besides the road, in the parking lots of stores and even in peoples yards (like ours).

Some of the bottles are thick enough that you could easily fill them water and carry them in a back pack, take them on a camping trip, or store them in your garage or car for emergency use like washing your hands or filling your radiator. In the Philippines, one man figured out how to make lights for their shacks and brick homes using old pop bottles, water and bleach. Click here to see how he did this.

Let your imagination roam. There are many uses for plastic bottles. I did a little search for images of uses for plastic bottles and actually found a blog site where it showed how people made green houses and furniture out of plastic bottles. One man even built a house for his family and a play house for his little girl. There is no reason you can’t find a use for plastic bottles, after all, even though you aren’t charged a deposit, the price of the pop is enough that you shouldn’t waste the container it came in.