Here are some great ways to keep plastic water bottles out of the landfill. You will also find some facts below on the subject.
- Refill with filtered water from your fridge door. You’ll always have water to go.
- Refill with any beverage you make in bulk and you’ll always have individual servings in the fridge. Easy and safer for kids to get handle. Plus, you’ll always have your favorite drink on the go when needed.
- Use them to mix your powder protein/vitamin supplements.
- Use to mix powder salad dressing and your can use right from the bottle. Great for picnics!
- Use them to store and freeze sauces/soups/broth. Better than plastic bags.
- Fill with water and freeze. Use them in your cooler instead of ice bags. They won’t get everything wet! Makes cleaning the cooler out an easier task.
- Poke a few small holes in the top edge of one, fill with water and use it to water small plants in your home or office. Whalla, mini watering jug!
- Make little bird feeder. Make several. Hang with fishing line or durable string from your trees or porch.
- Make a nifty squirrel feeder. Cut off the bottoms of three or more water bottles.
- Poke a few small holes around the top edge for drainage. Nail or screw the caps to a scrap piece of wood. Screw the bottles onto the caps. Fill each bottle with tasty treats like corn and sunflower seeds. Secure in a tree, mount on a pole or attach rope and hang.
- Use them to hold small items nails and screws. Nail or screw caps to a scrap wood board, fill with nuts, bolts, etc. and mount above your worktable. They are safer than using glass jars.
- Use them to store beads and jewels for beading and crafting.
- Cut off the top and use it for a small funnel.
- Cut off the bottom and use it for a pencil holder.
- Cut off the bottom and use it for a paper clip or rubber band holder.
- Cut off the bottom and use it for a seed starter.
- Cut the bottom off and use as a paint cup.
- Soak your paintbrushes in them.
- Make a terrarium. Ad soil, then seeds, then a little more soil, water through the cap opening and watch it grow! Great for kids!
- Use them as flower vases. You can decorate them if you like.
- Have the kids make a mobile. Fill the bottles with ribbon, glitter, whatever you can think of or decorate the outside of the bottles. Use sticks, dowels or hangers and string to assemble.
- Cut a slot to below the cap to insert your change and use as a “bottle bank”.
- Call your local schools and see if the art dept, science dept or horticulture dept can use them.
- Slug problems? Fill a water bottle with beer (preferable the cheap stuff) and bury it in the ground in your problem area. Bury it up to the top of the screw on part of the bottle opening. The beer will attract the slugs into the bottle and they can’t get back out. Or cut the bottom off and bury up to the edge and place in problem areas.
- Fill them with a handful of small stones and use them as noisemakers for sports games or other events. The glass beads you get in flower arrangements are great for this.
- Make a beach in a bottle. Add sand, a few small shells, a plastic fish or two and water and put the cap on.
27. Make “message in a bottle” invitations to an event. You can add confetti or other miniatures to coordinate with your event. To mail via U.S. Mail you must place them in a mailing box first. Save money and trees by hand delivering without the box.
Plastic Facts:
When consumers choose to refill and reuse convenience-size plastic bottles, should they be concerned about potentially harmful bacteria?
Not if they clean their plastic bottles between uses just as they would other drinking containers. Plastics are by nature extremely sanitary materials, and plastic bottles are no more likely to harbor bacteria than other kinds of packaging or drinking containers. Bacteria thrive in warm, moist environments. Once bacteria have been introduced, virtually any drinking container (coffee mugs, drinking glasses, serving pitchers, etc.) becomes a suitable environment for bacterial growth.
Consumers should clean any drinking container with hot soapy water and dry thoroughly between uses. Bottles specifically designed for extended reuse are often made with wide openings that allow consumers to use cleaning instruments and easily dry them.
Can freezing a PET beverage bottle cause dioxins to leach into its contents?
This is the subject of another e-mail hoax. There simply is no scientific basis to support the claim that PET bottles will release dioxin when frozen. Dioxins are a family of chemical compounds that are produced by combustion at extremely high temperatures. They can only be formed at temperatures well above 700 degrees Fahrenheit; they cannot be formed at room temperature or in freezing temperatures. Moreover, there is no reasonable scientific basis for expecting dioxins to be present in plastic food or beverage containers in the first place.
Where it started: Microwaving Plastic
Email:
Anyone who’s heated something up in the microwave has probably wondered about possible health effects. One common email exploits this fear by quoting information allegedly contained in a newsletter from Johns Hopkins University, adding that the “information is being circulated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.” Various versions of this email say a Dr. Fujimoto from Castle Hospital was on a TV program warning that heating plastic in the microwave or freezing water in plastic bottles releases toxins, like dioxin and DEHA. In August 2004, the email took on new life when the name of an American Cancer Society staffer at the bottom of the email seemed to give the story real credibility.
Fact:
This email has its roots in a January 2002 appearance on KHON-TV, Honolulu by a genuine person, Dr. Edward Fujimoto, who apparently made these claims. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on its Web site does say substances used to make plastics can leach into foods. But the agency has found the levels expected to migrate into foods to be well within the margin of safety based on information available to the agency. As for dioxin, the FDA says it “has seen no evidence that plastic containers or films contain dioxins and knows of no reason why they would.”
Microwave Use and Plastic Bottles:
Using a plastic item in the microwave that was not labeled for microwave suitability isn’t necessarily “unsafe.” All plastics intended for food use – whether designed for the microwave or not – must meet stringent FDA safety standards before they can be marketed to consumers. But unless a product is labeled for microwave suitability, you won’t have the assurance of knowing that an item was tested and evaluated for this purpose. The concern is that, if used inappropriately, an item may warp or melt when exposed to extremely hot foods, and accidental burns could occur.
Because of its heat resistance and shatter resistance – a significant safety advantage – polycarbonate also is used in a number of applications involving direct contact with foods and beverages. Airtight polycarbonate food storage containers help preserve freshness and protect foods from contamination, and many polycarbonate food containers offer the added convenience of safely going from freezer to microwave to dishwasher. Durable, lightweight polycarbonate sports bottles (e.g., Nalgene® and other brands) enable active people to quench their thirst on the go, and polycarbonate baby bottles are among the safest, easiest and most economical ways to bottle-feed a baby.
Polycarbonate has been studied and tested for nearly 50 years, and its use in products that come in contact with food is regulated for safety by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as well as governmental bodies worldwide.
For answers to other questions regarding plastic bottles go to www.plastics.org.
