Tips to give a second life to plastic

Plastic is one of the most demonised materials. Perhaps it is due to those terrible images that appear in the media in which you can see the islands of debris that have formed in the oceans. Indeed, these plastic vortices are one of the most difficult environmental problems to solve. And, without a doubt, one of the most efficient ways to help is to give second life to plastic so that it does not end up in the rubbish and, in the worst case, in the sea.

If you have an environmental conscience, you will be sure to throw away plastic bottles (and any object made with this material) in the yellow container. But you can do something even better: reuse those bottles. You can easily use them as containers. But there are many other options. The limit is your imagination and, the key, cut the bottles or join several together to create the desired shape.

In the home

You can use plastic bottles as flowerpot stands, making a vertical or horizontal cut, depending on whether you are going to place them on the floor or hang them on the wall. Without neglecting gardening, if you make a few holes in the base of the bottle and put it upside down, it can function as a sprinkler.

Maybe you do not know where to store plastic bags. Here’s an idea: cut the base of a bottle and leave the mouth as a dispenser. You can also use them as containers to keep pens, cutlery, makeup, toothbrushes and, in general, any narrow and elongated object. You can also use them to leave everyday objects such as scourers, newspapers, coins …

An original and practical use of the one litre-size bottles is as a portable umbrella stand. Close the wet umbrella and put it in a cut plastic bottle. In this way, you will avoid wetting surfaces of the house or the upholstery of the car.

With the bottle lids you can also make decorative objects such as table mats. You just have to stick several of them on the side. The mouth of the bottles, meanwhile, is a perfect size for placing candles. Of course, take care to put out a container that collects the melted wax.

If you are a handyman, you can try designing and making lamps, sweet boxes or boxes to wrap gifts. And if you have an artistic streak you can transform plastic into … whatever you want.

Roads and homes

The big companies are also aware of this idea of reusing plastic. Some football tops are made with this material. For example, the Nike brand has been using it since 2010 for some of its designs. Fashion is another sector that reuses plastic, in this case to manufacture clothes, backpacks or shoes.

At a more professional level, you can reuse plastic to build roads, as they do in Útila, a Honduran island in the Caribbean. You can even build houses with plastic bottles full of sand.

As we said, the limit is your imagination. The important thing is to give a second life to plastic so that it does not end up in the skip… or in the sea.