How To Reuse Plastic Bottles For Gardening: Easy Recycling Tips
Americans alone buy over 29 billion water bottles a year. And where does that go? It goes to landfills and other waste sites. The worst part is plastic bottles take 1000 years to decompose; this is what makes it a significant threat to our environment. The only way we can help is to recycle. One way to recycle those bottles is by learning how to reuse plastic bottles for gardening. In this article, we will be introducing ways on how to do that.
Trellis for Vines
One of the best ideas on how to reuse plastic bottles for gardening is to use it as trellis or fences for creeping vine crops in your garden. This way, they will not only serve as useful additions to your garden but will also prove to be quite beautiful, especially if the vines have flowers.
Just imagine those white or purple flowers crawling up those bottles you have stacked and tied vertically.
Greenhouse Walls
Another brilliant idea on how to reuse plastic bottles for gardening is to use them as greenhouse walls. You can tie them up using steel wires and then tie each end to the posts of your greenhouse and then, voila! You now have makeshift, transparent greenhouse walls!
The advantage of using plastic bottles as greenhouse walls is you can use colored bottles for added aesthetics.
Hanging Make-shift Pots
Next, you can reuse plastic bottles by making makeshift pots out of them.
You have to cut out a portion of the bottle for the plant and the soil to fit in it, paint it with your selected design, and then put the plant in it and hang it using a cable wire or steel wire.
This way, you can recycle the bottles, and, at the same time, save money because you won’t need to buy more pots for your hanging plants.
Tool Organizer
Gardening tools are costly, and so you need to figure out where to put them, and sometimes, placing them in a box can damage them. A great solution is to grab those plastic bottles and put make tool organizers out of them.
Cut your large plastic bottle in the middle, paint it, attach it to your greenhouse shelves, to a table, or on your garden porch, then put your tools in it.
Make-shift Watering Can
The next idea on how to reuse plastic bottles in for gardening is to use them as watering cans. If you still do not have any watering cans yet, grab that bottle, poke holes through the bottom of it, put water in it, and then use it as a makeshift water can.
Sprinkler System
When growing crops in a greenhouse, having a sprinkler system is ideal to ensure that the plants are watered equally. You can now have that sprinkler system without having to spend too much.
You already have a greenhouse wall made out of plastic bottles. Now, grab that extra bottle, poke holes in its body, lay it upwards, and make sure those holes are facing up, grab that hose and get it through the mouth of the bottle.
Now, turn the hose on, and there you have it! Your sprinkler system for your greenhouse crops!
Cultivator Shovel
This idea on how to reuse plastic bottles for gardening will help you a lot if you are one of those people who keeps on losing their cultivator shovels.
You can make one out of your plastic bottles. Look for a large plastic bottle with a handle, and cut the lower part until the middle section and make sure that the area of the handle until that of the mouth are intact.
Then, paint it, or customize the bottle the way you want to. Then, you’re ready to cultivate those crops with your new shovel!
Decoration
The last idea on how to reuse the plastic bottle for gardening is using them as decorations in your garden.
In this idea, all you have to do is to be creative and use your imagination! There are a lot of things that you can do to enhance the aesthetics of your garden. Here are some decorative ideas to help:
- Making Flowers out of the bottoms of the plastic bottles,
- Using the bottle caps as tiles or walkways,
- Painting the bottles according to the theme of your garden and hanging them,
- Making a swan, or other figurines using the accumulated plastic bottles,
- Building a tree using green or blue plastic bottles, or
- Making fences, walls, planters, or even decorative plants out of plastic bottles
Conclusion
The use of plastic bottles has been a threat to our environment for decades now. One way for us to help lessen pollution is to learn how to reuse plastic bottles for gardening or other endeavors.
In this article, we came up with ideas on how to reuse plastic bottles for gardening, which include:
- Making a trellis for vines,
- Using them as greenhouse walls,
- Cutting hanging makeshift pots out of them,
- Using them as a tool organizer,
- Making a watering can,
- Creating a sprinkler system,
- Making a cultivator shovel, or
- Only use them as decorations for your garden.
Those ideas on how to reuse plastic bottles will help us save our environment in our little ways.