Uses for empty plastic milk "bottles"?

jap200

HappySad wrote: »

I go through lots of those plastic milk 4 or 2pint bottles each week in our family (Dh, me, toddler + new baby). How can I re-use some of them without throwing them all away to be recycled.

How about having a fun art and craft session with your toddler - OK it will be mainly you doing it, but he/she can join in too. There are some really inventive ideas for things made out of plastic milk bottles here:

http://services.kent.gov.uk/publications/environment/scrapstore-worksheets.htm

These are ideas sheets from the kent scrapstore website.

We have a big box of art and craft goodies in our house - boxes, paper, card, ribbon, basically anything interesting looking that will otherwise be thown away or recycled. It is given another use first by me and my three sons who love doing our own art attack kind of stuff. I see this as the "reuse" part of the "reduce, reuse, recycle" mantra. It also saves money and resources as I am not buying art and craft materials and has a huge impact on my kids (and my) creative development. Often things end up back in the recycling and just occassionally something works really well and we have a masterpiece to take to school for show and tell and to proudly display in the house.

A day spent messing about with bits and pieces, paint and glue in the garden in half term is surely better than having kids stuck in front of some kind of screen.

Personally I see absolutely nothing wrong with making something into something else (and yes, I loved Blue Peter as a child) and I don't really care what anyone else thinks of what we have made and whether it is useful or not.

make_life_easier

This is a great idea, I am going to try the lampshade, what sized milk bottles do I use - I normally get the 2pints so they fit in my fridge easier

rosieben

jap200 wrote: »

Personally I see absolutely nothing wrong with making something into something else (and yes, I loved Blue Peter as a child) and I don't really care what anyone else thinks of what we have made and whether it is useful or not.

I agree absolutely! I save all sorts of odd things for my gd and I to use in our craft sessions. Much more than keeping kids from in front of the tv/xbox or whatever, it also helps them to think creatively, something we could all do with I think!!

16011996

second lampshade completed, quite impressed again, sorry i can't do a pic at present, my stupid camera is away for repair. the more you do easier they get as you sort of get how to fasten them. only problem is i have the urge to get rid of all mine and have these, lol. so some lampshades may well be appearing in my local charity shop/freecycle.
other good thing, about them is they rinse under shower dead easy, dd exploded a can of coke, and i just took ot off rinsed and left to dry

jap200

16011996 wrote: »

second lampshade completed, quite impressed again, sorry i can't do a pic at present, my stupid camera is away for repair. the more you do easier they get as you sort of get how to fasten them. only problem is i have the urge to get rid of all mine and have these, lol. so some lampshades may well be appearing in my local charity shop/freecycle.
other good thing, about them is they rinse under shower dead easy, dd exploded a can of coke, and i just took ot off rinsed and left to dry

I would love to try and make one of these. I had a look at my usual 6 pint milk bottles from Tesco and the problem is, the sides are not flat, they have a ridge half way across. Please can you tell me:

What size are the bottles you use?
where do you get them from?
Which bit of the bottle do you use?

Also, how do you attach the finished article to the bulb to make it into a lampshade?

16011996

i used 4 pinters from local corner shop, they only have like a seam down one side, i then cut out pieces from them, and left them under books over night, to flatten them.
for fixing, i have just threaded the wire from ceiling above bit where bulb goes into the shade at a between two pieces, has worked ok so far, but you need to figure out where to do it so the sides won't touch the bulb.
hth, ask if you need more explanation

Pennylane

I hate throwing these in the recycling bin and over the years have used them for many things.

When the kids were little we used them as skittles and for loads of craft activities. I always keep some for freezing homemade elderflower cordial in the summer.

This morning I have used a couple for feed scoops. I buy BIG sacks of wild bird feed for about £7.50 as opposed to a small plastic bag full in a pet shop for a quid. I use the scoop for getting the feed out and pouring into feeders. I also use them for dog biscuits and horse feed.

Im sure other people have done this but here's what I do.

Put plastic lid back on container. There's often a very nice built-in handle on the bigger "bottles" Cut off a smooth curved shape off the base and side and you're away!!

Anbody got any other fave uses? Apologies if this has already been covered!

Penelope_Penguin

There's an existing thread here - uses for empty milkbottles I'll move this thread to the G&E board, and it may be merged

thriftlady_2

Your mention of freezing elderflower cordial has given me an idea for making my rather empty freezer run more efficiently. I shall fill them with water and store them in the freezer. And goodness knows why I didn't think of freezing my elderflower cordial in milk cartons:doh:

The Tightwad Gazette (American frugal bible) has loads of ideas for using milk cartons. I got very excited by them until I realised that American milk cartons were much wider than ours. One of the best ideas was using the top portion including the handle as a robot mask for a kid's halloween costume.

Some of the other ideas from the Tightwad Gazette are; cutting the top part off and using them as scoops as you suggest, or as a compost bucket for kitchen scraps, a clothespeg holder, containers for children's toys-lego etc, or as a toilet brush holder (unfortunately ours are a bit too narrow for some of these ideas).

Other suggestions from the book are to cut the sides of the carton and use to make stencils or sewing cards for children. It occurs to me that you could cut cookie cutter shapes from them, or other templates, maybe to make simple toys or letter sets.

You can also use them cut down as seed trays/pots. If you punch holes in the bottom and fill with water you can place them next to plants that need watering-apparently it allows them to be watered without evaporation.

Pennylane

I did a search and nothing came up!! Thanks for moving it Penelope.

Thriftlady - I like having homemade Elderflower Cordial on Xmas Day and remembering the day when I made it in the summer! I know, I know, I will try and get out more!!:rotfl: :rotfl: I will be looking up Tightwad Gazette though! Cheers:T