Plastic Bottle Projects
What can you do with empty plastic bottles?
Well quite a lot actually!
Whilst being generally less attractive, sturdy and craftable than glass bottles, before you throw them into the recycling container there is a shedload of uses for empty plastic bottles.
As someone that drinks a fair old quantity of diet coke each week I have generated quite a few hundred empty coke bottles over the years. The quantity generated is far more than I could actually use to adapt into something remotely useful, but every now and then we’ll have a go at something new or creating an emergency tool!
I have found more uses for plastic bottles outside of the home rather than within and they are particularly useful around the garden.
Uses for empty coke bottles?
Emergency Toilet Plunger – This is the easiest tool you will ever make as you literally just need to finish the drink first. To maintain the structure of the bottle, screw the lid back on tight and start plunging. I prefer to plunge lid down (the bottle lid not the toilet lid!) as the bottle is perfectly round at the top, but I doubt it makes much odds really. Equally you could fill it with water first for added structural integrity but this will make it heavier of course and more tiring if what you have deposited is proving stubborn to shift.
This is never going to clear a manhole or a blocked down pipe but if the toilet pan has been overloaded or the u-bend clogged, i have a 100% clearance record with the trusty 2 litre coke bottle.
Greenhouses For Seedlings – You can make 2 small greenhouses from a single 2 litre bottle but simply cutting it in half. For the top half you can leave the lid off or ajar for ventilation but what I prefer to do on both the bottom and top sections is to make a few small holes. If you’ve never tried drilling a coke bottle don’t bother, what I do is simply heat the soldering iron up and just melt a few holes around what will be the top for ventilation.
On the downside they are quite light so might blow off every now and then but on the upside they are free and the slugs are going to have a job getting in. I’ll let you know how things work out.