1001 uses for plastic bottles.

Plastic bottle recycling has been one of the great disasters of our time. In the early days during the 80s there were mounds of drinks bottles and no-one could come up with a use. Some now get used for fleeces and making up fence posts but the supply of empties continues to outstrip demand. And then it emerged that many recycling facilities were overcoming this problem by shipping the bales of squashed bottles to China for recycling but that most were just heaped up and burnt.

Which begs the question 'Why don't they simply get taken to power stations and burnt in place of oil or coal?', they are after all just oil in solid form.

But before putting them out for recycling some can be used around the home.

The top 2 to 3 inches of the neck section of a 2 liter fizzy drinks bottle makes a perfect funnel for use in the kitchen or workshop. They are not too heat resistant but put up with engine oil and paint thinners. The bottom couple on inches make cheap flower pots. Just cut them up with kitchen scissors and poke a few holes through the feet bits.

The 'square' shape white milk cartons make ideal little scoops (the small ones are best as they are more rigid). Leave the lid on and cut diagonally from below the handle to the other side. Handy for the kitchen but not too strong.

Keep some lids handy as they can be used by kids for wheels on their models.

This works even better for some of the heavy duty bottles often used by cleaning companies or business for soap or bleach. The best way to cut these to shape is to lie them on their side and put a sharp saw across them. These are them sturdy enough for shoveling animal feed, cement, sand, they make brilliant spades on the beach because they double up as buckets to carry water too. And again the bottoms make sturdy flowerpots once you've overdone it making scoops.

Now recycle the off cuts.

A 5 liter soap container, a 2 liter bleach bottle and 2 liter milk carton.

Reduce rating 0/10,
Reuse rating 8/10,
Recycle rating 4/10.