Re-fizz: How to repurpose old soda bottles

 Seven ways to repurpose those soda bottles

… and should you be drinking so much of it?

 

From our special desk

Yes, yes, sustainability, I hear friends say, but what else can I get my Coke and Pepsi in? The aluminium cans are mighty expensive and not always available. How do I live a sustainable life with this use?

Here are a few ways to repurpose that fizzy drink bottle. And while you’re at it, wonder whether you should be drinking so many in the first place!

If you’re crafty…

You can use old plastic bottles and create various new items.

From cell phone holders to piggy banks, from flower vases to string lights, you can craft a whole range of projects from empty soda bottles!

Just Google the term and you will be deluged by the number of ideas.

Courtesy Hello wonderful

 

We particularly love Linda Dumes’s Pinterest board: https://in.pinterest.com/LindaHDumes/reuse-soda-bottles/

If you want to go greener…

Using the plastic bottles in the garden can help bring home the green factor. Options abound. You can make small planters for your herbs, use the bottle with holes drilled into the cap for slow drip irrigation into the soil, or use it to protect new seedlings, as a mini “greenhouse”.

Bottles with holes drilled in them can be used to create a sprinkler effect in your garden, and bottles can also make beautiful DIY terrariums.

A vertical garden wall using plastic bottles can also be a fun and very rewarding activity.

(attribution: hayley green / Greenhouse, Ouseburn Farm (prev known as Byker farm), Ouseburn)

If you want to go crazy…

You can build an entire greenhouse of empty plastic bottles. Have a neighbourhood collection drive of empty plastic bottles and create your own greenhouse! Look at these samples. Some designs use up bubble wrap as well!

And look at this… a boat made of plastic bottles. A concept that seems to have found takers across continents, be it for flood relief, cheaper alternative, or as an environmental awareness campaign!

There you have it: several ways to use those empty plastic bottles, so they do not end up in a landfill somewhere.