A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2007 recycle plastic containers

Very nicely done Patty. And it , what, only took you 2-3 hours to write it?

It really is a good job, Wanna do mine?

She can do mine after Tina's!!!

If it weren't for all the distractions I had,

I wish the thermometer on the shed door would have shown up better! It had started cooling down when I took the pic... 63*!

Mine would be Mwhahahahahahah hahahahahha,
You have nooooooooooooo idea
what you'd be getting yourself into organizing mine...

Ahhhemmm... I don't have a problem throwing away other people's treasures!!
I could fix your mightmare in no time!

hehehehehee..

Yeah, but could you find your way to the other end of it, that's what I would be curious about...

'Especially when you throw it to the curb,
and I'm like "HEYYYYYY, LOOKIE~LOOKIE WHAT I JUST FOUND IN THE GARBAGE..." hahahhaa..
Vicious cycle it would be...

Too bad we can't find one of those 9 cubic yard dumpsters "just laying around", to put our good stuff in! We could spend all our time inside 1 of those, rediscovering! (I see those all the time, but they look like they'd be hard to move ...& impossible to hide, to avoid prosecution!)

Soooo... the secret is to consolidate all that stuff! Believe it or not, even with most of those pots & trays & buckets nested inside each other, they didn't all fit on top of the picnic table at once, but I got every one of them stacked neatly in a 2' X 2' X 6' space! (DON'T ask me how that works... must be a physics thing!)

It also cuts waaaayyy back on the comments & the "looks" from you-know-who!! I think I actually detected a smile, when he saw what I did!
(He didn't have to drive to the dump!)

according to one book I have... "Vinegar, Duct Tape, Milk Jugs & More, 1,001 Ingenious ways to use common household items to Repair, Restore, Revive, or Replace just about everything in your life" you can use those styrofoam cartons, cut the tops off and put them under the egg carton to help catch water. Also suggest that drying egg shells and planting your seeds in them is usefull. When time for transplanting comes around plant your seedlings egg shell and all for the added calcium.

I've recently found that Heinz ketchup comes in a squeeze bottle with a mess proof lid that makes for a perfect watering can. It's more of a watering jet than can but it fills my smaller watering implements very quickly and it's nice for watering the larger stuff around the house. Once you are done squeezing the bottle the water stops instantly also, which is great if you want to be precise with it.

I got another, bigger (32 oz. vs. 64 oz.), bottle of ketchup a couple days ago, that didn't have the neat lid on it, I'm hoping that the lids are interchangable. They look to be the same size...

What a great idea....I hadnt thought of using and empty ketchup bottle like that before...and wouldnt you know it...i just threw out a squeeze bottle the other day

I use the Ketch~up containers as "Squirt~Guns"
for the kids..
***I reallyyyyyyyyyy dispise guns, and children pointing them at people without a care or thought to it, and I know I am wierd, or maybe anal about it, but it drives me nutzzz***

so, I get a big 60qt containers, fill with water, then get a bunch of those ketchup bottles, and let the boys, fill and squeeze away..
***I keep my pancake syrup bottles too***

and of course you need tons' of them, so someone can sit and fill while they alllllllll squirt...

Aighead,
I never thought about those as watering cans like,
but you gave me a great idea too,
just like I do above for the boys and squirt guns,
I could keep another tub in my greenhouse,
fill that with water and then just suck up the water with them
and do my seedlings' trays' ....

Thats a great idea for the kids too Weezie....again i wouldnt have thought of using them for that

The no mess cap is really the key, if you can find it, it's great! You could hold it upside down forever and it doesn't leak unless you squeeze it.

Hi everyone, I reuse baby food jars and any other type of jars. I like to keep the lids for them as well. I make snow globes from the jars with their lids. Buy some craft glitter from the dollar store. Take silicone glue and glue on a small figurine into the inside of the lid.(like the ones they have out at Christmas time at the dollar stores). Then sprinkle some sparkles into the jar and add water, screw back on the top after the glue has dried and voila and instant snow globe.
I also recycle my coffee cans buy using them outside for my husbands butts, because he is a smoker. The recycled coffee cans also hold grease drippings and I recently found they hold the tabs off of pop cans too. I collect pop can tabs because there's a program to donate these to some kind of place that takes them and people that are handicapped get a wheelchair. I also reuse my meat trays for underneath my seedling plants. Egg cartons are good for craft ideas for kids school projects. And cereal boxes are good for kids on a rainy day when they have nothing to do, they make village scenes with them. My husband used to work at our local paper mill, till it shut down, so he would bring home stub paper rolls. These are great for making banners for birthdays etc...
As for the plastic lids from the coffee cans, I keep those after they have been washed because they come in handy for reusing to cover other cans. Example, when I buy my groceries, I buy a large can (about the size of the coffee can), of pasta sauce, but when I open the pasta sauce with the can opener there's no lid so I grab a plastic coffee can lid that fits nicely on top and I store the unused pasta sauce in the fridge.
I could probally go on and on with the recycled items I use. My daughter and I really like to do a lot of crafts, so you can just imagine.

Those are great.
Thanks!!!!

Have you ever seen those Christmas trees' with the baby food jars, they glue them together in the shape of a Christmas tree.... then stick in
a set of those 100 tiny (mini) Christmas tree lights you can get for a $1.00 at the Dollar tree stores.. and stick them inside the jars,
and it looks like a lit up Christmas tree...
*you can also put a wooden board on the back of it and drill holes in it to keep it all stablized..

More fantastic ideas!!!!

I use the plastic dish soap bottles to water plants with...just about the same as using the Ketchup bottles.

OK. This is fun.
I used to warm up my seeds before I could afford a heat mat. I did this at my parents' house when I was younger. I had a desk with an underneath crossbar and our heat vents were in the floor. So... I would put my flats with the domes on them around the vent register with the desk over the top. Then I would arrange an old blanket over the crossbar with the edges folded tight to the flat edges so no heat would escape. My mom just shook her head like I was crazy. :rolleyes: It didn't generate enough heat to be a fire hazard or anything but it did raise the temp of the flats above the ambient air temp. about 10 degrees and give the seeds extra warmth to really get them going...

I haven't used recyclables for growing in a while, but it sounds like fun now that you mention it.
I always liked the idea of using strange hollow items that are aesthetically pleasing as outdoor pots: old boots, vases, buckets, a blender container you find beautiful... a lot of this stuff can originate from a garage sale.

Great idea!!!! I know that look of :rolleyes: I get it all the time from hubby and friends when I show them my newest project!

My daughter gave me a crazy look today when she found out I re-used the container my crossiants came in. I re-used it by making a portable greenhouse. The container was clear moulded plastic. Great with the lid closed for a greenhouse effect.

I use the containers' that the cherry tomatoes
come in.. I use a ton of them, for my husband's lunches.. he gets a salad every dayyyyyyyy...
*I go thru a boat load of them*

But I save them, and use them in the elementary classes to start seeds in...

***I also re~use them when I am picking my own
cherry tomatoes when they are ripening..
and the container is really great too when I'm delivering cherry tomatoes to the neighbors too..***