Friday, November 30, 2012

Plastic Bottle Projects

A huge amount of waste generated results from the use of disposable plastic bottles. According to makemagazine, " Americans throw away 2 million plastic bottles an hour." Why not put this astounding amount of waste to use instead of sending it to landfills? The YouTube videos Weekend Project: 2 Liter Bottle Recycling, Make a toy car out of a plastic bottle | recycle | re-use | Africa, and Freestyle Friday Episode 20. ...Plastic Bottle = Vase & Flower give some quick and easy reuse ideas for plastic 2 liter bottles. Some projects are suitable fun for kids. Just be sure to provide supervision and adult assistance when needed so no one gets hurt.

2 Liter Bottle


Weekend Project: 2 Liter Bottle Recycling is a 3 minute video posted by makemagazine that features 8 reuse ideas for plastic 2 liter bottles. Displacing water in the toilet tank, using the top part as a funnel, trapping pesky insects without harmful chemicals, a camera stand, a self-watering flower pot, a rain meter, and a bird feeder are environmentally friendly reuses demonstrated in the video.


Plastic Bottle Car


Make a toy car out of a plastic bottle | recycle | re-use | Africa is an approximately 3 minute video posted by Send a Cow. In it, a young Ugandan boy named Dennis shows viewers how to make a toy car with just a plastic water bottle, 4 additional plastic water bottle tops, 2 sticks, some bottle caps, and a bit of string. Simple though it may be, Dennis presents a creative idea that could be a fun project for kids. Modify Dennis's idea as needed (use rocks instead of bottle caps for example) and let kids decorate their car however they want.

Plastic Bottle Vase and Flower


Freestyle Friday Episode 20. ...Plastic Bottle = Vase & Flower is a 6:30 tutorial by Niler Taylor on how to create a vase and floral arrangement from a plastic bottle. Brief instructions for creating a flower out of the top of a plastic bottle are also included. Plastic bottle flowers are a fun craft idea for kids. For younger kids, an adult should make the base flower first. Kids of most ages should be able to decorate the completed flower without too much problem.

About

makemagazine

makemagazine is the YouTube channel for MAKE magazine. MAKE appears to be geared towards DIY projects.

Send a Cow

Send a Cow is the YouTube channel for the Send a Cow charity. According to its profile page, Send a Cow "helps thousands of African families grow enough food to eat, sell their produce and develop small businesses that last."

Niler Taylor

Niler Taylor is a YouTube user who posts craft videos.

Critique

While not backed by expert sources, Weekend Project: 2 Liter Bottle Recycling, Make a toy car out of a plastic bottle | recycle | re-use | Africa, and Freestyle Friday Episode 20. ...Plastic Bottle = Vase & Flower offer up some neat reuse ideas. My biggest complaints are that Weekend Project: 2 Liter Bottle Recycling does not give a source for the information in its description and Freestyle Friday Episode 20. ...Plastic Bottle = Vase & Flower could exchange the time spent creating the floral arrangement with some footage of the plastic flower being decorated. Other than that, the videos seem pretty solid. I love how
Make a toy car out of a plastic bottle | recycle | re-use | Africa
almost seems to emphasize that an adult needs to do the cutting part of that particular craft. Safety is important, after all.

6 comments:

  1. I'm not very good at craft making but I've been washing and reusing plastic soda and water bottles for years. Why buy more bottled water when you can buy a couple and just keep refilling them? And two liter bottles work great to fill with water and freeze, then use in an ice chest to keep food and drinks cold. Lasts a lot longer than bagged ice and when it melts you have drinkable water.

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  2. Yes, this is indeed better than just throwing bottles and sending them to landfills. And you will get to save money too, instead of buying new ones. On top of that, they can function other than storage for a drink. It just depends on our resourcefulness and our drive to save the Earth.

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  3. Excellent creative ideas! These ideas will certainly help save the environment and governments should look at these awesome crafts and introduce workshops to help the unemployed, single mothers, disabled or handicapped, make use of these recycling ideas to earn some income. I am talking about third world and developing countries where there is a need for such activity.

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