An empty plastic bottle, after its direct purpose, turns into trash or a real work of art. It all depends on who got the bottle into the hands. It’s time to discover new horizons and make the most of cheap waste material for landscaping decor and improving housing amenities in the country. The benefits are obvious: we save the household budget on scoops and brooms; we decorate the summer cottage with evergreen and maintenance-free plants; adding colors to landscape design and much more. And most importantly! By not throwing bottles on sidewalks and landfills, we allow nature to be a little cleaner and more beautiful.
By the way, why are we surrounded by countless PET bottles? It is interesting! The first plastic bottle was born in the 70s with the light hand of the manufacturer «DuPont». The company has set a goal to create containers that can compete with glass containers for carbonated drinks, water and juices. It must be admitted that the manufacturer managed to carry out his plans. PET bottles have become in demand by consumers on a par with glass counterparts. Only now, one small problem arose – the used plastic cannot be burned, but can only be disposed of in special factories. So we do not have separate collection points for plastic bottles, which even plays into the hands of craftsmen.
Read and learn from the experience of using plastic bottles in the country: decorating a plot, making household supplies and even practical buildings.
Plastic bottles in the decor of the cottage
The dacha is a magical place: here the twig becomes a tree, and the seed becomes a vegetable. The heart is filled with joy at the sight of healthy and strong seedlings. Now imagine that colorful decorative elements on the beds, flower beds and summer cottages will double the mood and once again confirm to the owners that «in the country – everything is in order». Take your time to run to the shops, get them out of the outbuildings or ask the neighbors for plastic bottles and act.
Assess the overall situation on the site. Have a problem with paving slabs? Make bottom track or plastic bottle caps. The installation options for both materials are different. The most common method is pressing into wet sand. However, we are more impressed by the option using concrete. In any case, it is better to consult with specialized specialists on this issue..
Flowerbeds framed with plastic bottles look bright and elegant in summer cottages. Every summer resident can make such a decor. You just need to fill bottles (1.5 liters) with sand or earth and dig them into the ground with their neck down. It is advisable to paint white bottles with acrylic paints, and brown or dark green plastic does not need additional processing at all.
The flower beds themselves can be additionally decorated artificial vegetation. Plastic palms, chamomile or vines will never wither, dry out or discolor. They are not afraid of the vagaries of the weather: hail or the scorching sun.
Undoubtedly, whimsical figurines and sculptures, hand made from plastic bottles. If complex compositions, such as crows and peacocks using up to 60 bottles of bottles are not up to everyone, then everyone can handle crafts in the form of funny frogs, colorful fly agarics or funny piglets from five-liter eggplants..
Insects from plastic bottles look unusual on bushes and trees. Weightless butterflies, dragonflies or bees will never fly away from the summer cottage. The craft does not require certain skills and abilities. It is enough to draw an insect on the surface of the bottle, paint the template with acrylic paints and cut the drawing along the contour.
By the way, what are we all about the garden and the vegetable garden. Country buildings can be perfectly decorated with plastic covers – lay them out as mosaic on the outside wall. True, such a decor will only be approved by those craftsmen who are used to and are not afraid of painstaking, monotonous work..
These are not all ideas for decorating a summer cottage. We tried to select the most relevant and most popular options for summer residents, but we will be happy to consider other proposals..
Household supplies from plastic bottles
Decor is good, but household accessories are better, more precisely, more practical. Enterprising summer residents have long adopted master classes for making all kinds of tools and garden tools.
For example, it is impossible to ignore such crafts from plastic bottles as brooms. Why buy a broom of 200-500 rubles, if you can make this garden tool with your own hands? The essence of the work is to separate the bottom from the bottle and cut the remaining plastic into centimeter (in width) strips. It is noteworthy that the stiffness of the broom directly depends on the width of the strips. The thinner the plastic strips, the softer the panicle. By the way, there are several options for making this summer cottage inventory. The choice of method directly affects the width and thickness of the finished product. Each master will definitely find a suitable option for himself.
Do it yourself scoop to the broom – a matter of honor. Only a lazy person cannot cope with such a task. We are looking for a bottle with a capacity of 2 liters (preferably with an elongated neck). For the convenience of working with plastic, we first separate the bottom, and then cut off the extra centimeters of the surface, giving the workpiece the shape of a scoop. Done. Also pay attention to the container from under the cleaning agents or canisters. They make such blades that you can even put them up for sale (cheap and tasteful).
Dacha without washbasin definitely not a joy. Let’s hurry to correct the misunderstanding by using an ordinary plastic bottle with a capacity of 2 liters or more. We cut off the bottom, with the help of nails we fasten the finished device with the neck down to the wall of a wooden building or we hang it with a wire on a tree. Pour water, slightly unscrew the lid and quickly wash the pens.
Additionally, some owners have adapted to make from plastic bottles:
- «umbrellas» from rain for padlocks in garages, houses, outbuildings;
- mini greenhouses for seedlings;
- storage for groats that bugs «too tough»;
- container for collecting berries and small fruits. If you cut off the neck of the bottle and thread a string into the resulting glass, then the finished product can be put on the neck and put raspberries with strawberries, cherries and currants there;
- traps for insects, snails, mole rats, bears and other garden pests. To lure insects into a plastic glass, pour beer or sweet syrup and hang the trap on a tree. The liquid is changed periodically, and «prisoners» remove.
It turns out that snails don’t mind trying a drink or beer either. In this case, the plastic glass will have to be buried at the very edge in the ground, and then periodically cleaned it from the mollusks that it got..
The principle of using plastic bottles when hunting mole rats and bear is somewhat different. It is based on receiving a sound that repels these pests or creating some kind of barrier. A bottle with holes cut in the walls through the neck is put on a wooden or metal rod, installed in a summer cottage. When the wind blows, the noise from the bottle will make the mole leave. But the bottle buried in the ground will become an obstacle on the way of the annoying bear.
Buildings from plastic bottles
It turns out that in suburban areas, buildings from plastic bottles are far from know-how, but «everyday business». Bottles are an excellent construction option for the construction of gazebos, greenhouses, sheds for garages and other outbuildings.
The most interesting option, in our opinion, is greenhouse from plastic bottles. The essence of the construction is to install a wooden frame. We dig some of the mounting rails into the ground vertically, and place some horizontally. We assemble the walls of the greenhouse from bottles without a bottom, strung on a wire. To give the building additional strength, we screw the side panels to the wooden frame with screws.
The construction is carried out on the same principle gazebos and Saraev. If plastic bottles of different colors were used in the work, it may be necessary to paint the finished gazebo. And it is better to initially select the color scheme so as to get the original pattern of the building.
What can be made from plastic bottles: 8 video master classes
The theme of crafts for giving from plastic bottles is so multifaceted that ideas can be continuously shared for a whole week. However, sometimes it is better to look once than to read it a hundred times. We have made a selection of the most useful (and really doable) crafts from plastic bottles, the work on which will be mastered by every summer resident. So what can be made from plastic bottles? Without further ado – to the point.
