15 Ways to Reuse Plastic Bottles

No matter how much I try to avoid plastic, I seem to always end up with at least one or two plastic bottles in my recycle bin. Sometime it’s a juice bottle, sometimes it held dish or laundry soap.

Here in the U.S., we generated 31 million tons of plastic waste in 2010 alone. That is a lot of empty soap and juice bottles! Of course, not all of that waste was plastic bottles, but anything we can do to reduce our plastic waste is going to help put a dent in that number, since 14 million tons of that waste was from packaging such as plastic bottles.

But, what about recycling plastic?

If you can’t avoid plastic, you can at least feel good about tossing that bottle in the recycle bin, right? Well…yes and no.

The trouble with plastic recycling is that it’s very inefficient. When you recycle plastic, you always end up with a lower-grade plastic. It’s more like downcycling than recycling. That’s why reusing your plastic is so important, if you can’t avoid the stuff. That trip to the recycle center extends plastic’s life, but it’s still landfill bound eventually, where it won’t break down for centuries. No good at all!

Rather than send your used plastic bottles through the waste stream, you can reuse plastic bottles in all sorts of fun, crafty ways! Here are some ideas to get you started.

>> Next Turning plastic bottles into repurposed home and garden decor.