5 Ways to Reuse a Plastic Milk Container
Easy Ways in Which You Can Keep This Item Out of Your Bin
Aug 22, 2008 Rachel Tsoumbakos
Recycling is a very trendy thing to do these days. While it is important that we do recycle what we can, sometimes it is better to reuse items. When an item is recycled, usually a lot of energy is used to turn the old item into a new item. Sometimes this energy is even greater than the energy used to produce the original item. While recycling prevents a large amount of landfill, carbon conscious people should also be prepared to reuse an item fully before recycling it. Here are five easy ways in which you can prevent or at least delay the recycling process of a product that is sometimes purchased daily.
- Plant Barriers - Take a pair of scissors and cut off the top and bottom of a milk container. You are then left with a hollow tube that is about 6 inches tall. This barrier can now be placed over the top of new seedlings as you plant them into the ground. For the organic gardener, this means that the seedlings are offered a barrier protection against slugs and snails. The plant can now also be watered directly without the threat of water runoff. If you are planting your seedlings a little early in the season, this small plastic barrier can also create a microclimate that will keep your plants a little warmer as well as protecting them from late frosts.
- Plant Tags - If you plant out seeds every year in spring into seed trays, you have probably bought plant tags as a way of identifying your seedlings. They are expensive to purchase, but can be made easily from a plastic milk bottle. Simply cut off the top and bottom again, so you are left with the hollow tube. Now cut this tube into strips wide enough to write your plant names onto. These tags can be written on with a permanent marker. Alternatively, you can use a lead pencil, this way the names can be rubbed off and changed at will.
- Beer Bait Trays - So now that you have a whole heap of tops and bottoms left from making plant barriers and plant tags: what can you do with the left overs? The bases can be placed outside in amongst your delicate plants. The ones that the snails love to eat. Now fill it up with beer. The snails love a good drink and will come along, drink, fall in and drown.
- Scoops - Now what to do with all the tops? Each of these tops has its own handle. Why not use them for scoops? Place them into any large containers you keep to scoop up items such as flour, rice and sugar. Or use them in the garden. They can scoop up potting mix, fertiliser or grain for birds.
- Containers - If you cut just the top off a milk container, it can be used as a storage container. Keep your pens in them, or small gardening items such as secateurs. They are also the right width to store all your seed packets in. Bits of plastic cut to fit inside the containers can also be used as dividers.
So there you have it, some quick and easy uses for plastic milk containers that will keep them temporarily, or even permanently, out of the recycling system.
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