10 Quick Re-Uses for a Plastic Bottle

Plastic soda and waterbottles accumulate in our landfills at a rate of about 40 million per day. I am personally a little obsessed with keeping them out of the landfills and reducing the number that enter the consumer stream at all, but that is another subject.

I have listed ten quick things you can re-use a plastic bottle for. Re-using items keeps another item out of the waste stream. It aslo saves money. We are all so addicted to having a particular item for a particular purpose, that we lose site of the fact that we are very often generating unneccessary items.

Mostly, the list should open your eyes to the fact that just because something is no longer needed for it's original purpose, it is not necessarily garbage. Look around and see what else you can re-use!

1. Use as a measuring cup around the house - IF you need to measure something that you don't want to put in the measuring cup you use for cooking, make your own! Simply pour water in to a regular measuring cup and mark the plastic bottle at the increments you want to measure. Great for laundry liquids, garden items, cleaning fluids and whatever else you can think of.

2. Funnel - Cut the top off and use as a funnel.
3. Pencil Holder - Let the kids use the bottom of the bottle you made a funnel out of to make a pencil holder. Have them decorate with paper, paint, giltter, stickers or whatever else you have around the house. Great inexpensive rainy day activity.
4. Ice Packs - Fill about three quarters of the way with water and freeze. Works just as well as blue ice. If you use them for camping or a family outing, they will also provide fresh, cold drinking water. We have rabbits and use them on hot days to keep our bunnies cool. A frozen bottle in a cooler doesn't get your sandwiches soggy!
5. Water House Plants - Use one to mix and keep your house plant food in.
6. Fill Space in Large Flower Pots - If you have one of those giant flower pots, throw some in the bottom. Small water bottles can fill up the bottom area which most plants will not need to grow anyway. Will keep down the weight of the container and the cost of filling it needlessly with expensive potting mix.
7. Use as Plant Incubators - If you have tender plants coming up in the spring and are afraid of them being damaged by frost overnight, a plastic bottle with the top cut off and placed over them upside down will act as a great incubator.

8. Paint Brush Well - When the kids are painting, use to hold the rinse water for paintbrushes. The spines on the bottom are great for cleaning the brushes off while painting.
9. Bank - Pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters fit just fine into the mouth of a soda bottle. Again, let the kids decorate them however they want and you have another instant, almost free craft.
10. Noise Maker - Great for sporting events or anywhere else you want to make a lot of noise. Fill with pennies, washers, beads or anything else that will make noise when you shake it. Try bells for a really cool sound variation.

Loretta Boyle

www.CraftCycler.com