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What Can I Make with Recycling?
Recycling crafts gained popularity during the lockdowns, and extended home stays over the past few years. But there’s no reason to stop crafting from your recycling bin these days.
From glass jars to cardboard, tin cans to corks, crafts made from recycled items are fun to do and best of all, they’re practically free!
How Do You Recycle Creatively?
The recycling bin is a great source of craft supplies. From a discarded food container to yesterday’s newspaper, the contents of your recycling bin can be transformed into craft materials.
Many people may also be surprised at how many ‘recyclable’ items aren’t accepted from county to county. Local authorities often have strict policies on what can go in their recycling bins.
As a result, it’s more important than ever to reconsider placing everything in your recycling bin! If rejected at the recycling centre, it will end up in a landfill, further elevating the importance of craft projects.
Tin Cans
Tin cans are a pantry staple when you buy soup, beans, or tinned vegetables. When you’re done in the kitchen, you can use the cans for craft projects.
Tin cans also make fantastic containers for craft supplies like markers and paintbrushes.
They can also be quite easily turned into planters. For the more experienced crafter, drilling holes in steel cans turns them into beautiful lanterns for candles and battery-operated lights.
Glass Jars and Bottles
Glass bottles and jars are great for upcycling crafts. They can be reused for other food supplies, especially if you shop in bulk. Glass jars are perfect for storing dry beans, grains, and pasta so that they don’t get stale.
You can also upcycle bottles and jars into decorative items for your home. Remember this DIY tealight holder? It began life as a Nutella jar!
Wine bottles make great vases, especially if they have an attractive shape. Glass bottles and jars can be painted many ways, and light and lamp kits are available for jars and bottles.
Cardboard
From Amazon boxes to toilet tissue tubes, cardboard takes up space in many recycling bins. However, there are so many ways to reuse and craft with cardboard.
Pet owners know this firsthand—cardboard boxes are a favourite napping spot for cats and small dogs. Even just letting them play with boxes before recycling them provides hours of stimulation for them. Just the box alone is good enough for many pets, but adding a towel or blanket can make the box even more attractive.
Smaller cardboard boxes are also easy to transform into wardrobe organisers. Covering them with fabric gives them a professional look without breaking the bank.
Cardboard tubes from toilet tissue, paper towels, and gift wrap are also ideal craft supplies. Upcycling the tubes into play binoculars for children is a fun activity. You can also fill them with trinkets and wrap them with fabric or paper for Christmas crackers.
Toilet tissue tubes can further be upcycled into fire starters for a fireplace or fire pit.
Newspaper
In this fast-paced, increasingly digital world, people tend to buy fewer newspapers, as many people consume their news online these days. As a result, recycling bins filled with old newspapers are slowly becoming a thing of the past.
That said, if you can find a stash of old papers, there are still more innovative ways to repurpose them than putting them in the recycling bin.
Newspaper pulp can be repurposed into seed bombs, a great hostess gift, or a party favour.
Papier-mâché is still a popular craft technique that relies on newspaper as an essential craft supply. But newsprint can also be broken down into a pulp mixture to create new paper forms for greeting cards and artwork.
Plastic Bottles
Plastic bottles are a challenge to recycle, making them environmental pariahs. However, because they are nearly impossible for consumers to avoid, it’s even more important to look for creative ways to reuse them.
Two-litre bottles are a perfect size for recycling crafts. You can transform them into plant holders and even birdhouses. Smaller water bottles can be sliced into bracelet-sized rings. Cover them in fabric or yarn to make fashionable bangles.
Plastic bottles with handles, such as laundry detergent bottles, can be easily transformed into a watering can. Rinse the bottle thoroughly and drill holes in the lid.
Paper
Whether it’s a magazine, some junk mail, or even a greeting card, there is often a variety of paper in the recycling bin. Some of it is best left in the bin, but the rest holds all sorts of crafting potential.
Surprisingly, a lot of paper cannot be recycled. Metallic wrapping paper and many greeting cards aren’t suited for traditional recycling. So, upcycling them in your craft projects is the best way to save them from landfill.
Creating new greeting cards from used ones is a fun paper craft. Or turning Christmas cards and gift wrap into ornaments for your tree is also an idea.
And those glossy pages from your spent magazines? Paper quilling, or tightly rolling paper strips, is a fantastic technique for making paper beads.
Fizzy Drinks Cans
Utilise your fizzy drinks cans using special shears to cut into cans to create whimsical flowers and other designs.
If that sounds too advanced, you can also paint the cans, fill them with sand (to add weight to the bottom), and use them as vases for silk flowers.
And the tabs? They can be strung together with jump rings and jewellery wire to create whimsical bracelets and ankle jewellery. Drink can tabs can even be nailed to the back of a frame as a cheap and cheerful picture hanger.
Plastic Tubs & Bottles
Milk and juice bottles can take up a lot of space in a recycling bin, especially if you have a large family. This makes them ideal craft supplies for any number of ideas.
Cutting off the bottoms is a fun way to turn them into scoops – perfect for soil or mulch. A gallon water cooler bottle can also be refashioned into a bird feeder by cutting out the panels on the sides, filling the bottom with seed, and hanging from a tree.
Other grocery store tubs, such as those used for ground coffee, are bulky items for your bins. They can be painted and covered in fabric for decorative storage or chic planters for your home.
Plastic Takeaway Containers
Punnets and similar takeaway containers are recyclable in some areas but not all. When in doubt, craft it out! Reusing ‘takeaway’ containers for your leftovers is a great cost-saver. Sanitising them in the top rack of your dishwasher is an excellent way to reuse them repeatedly.
Clamshell punnets, especially the vented kind for berries, are a great way to start seeds for your spring gardens. The plastic keeps the soil in place, while the vents provide the drainage that all plants and seedlings need.
Supplies You’ll Need for Your Recycling Crafts Projects
Depending on the project, additional or specialty supplies may be needed, but these standard supplies will help you put together your crafts made from recycled materials quickly and easily and get started.
String and Ribbon
Ribbons, strings, twines, and ropes are various craft supplies that may be useful. Sometimes, yarn may also be used to achieve the same purpose.
Paint
Paint, either spray or regular, is a staple in any crafter’s supplies. Paints have numerous variations, including colour and finish. Hardware stores have a wide variety of spray paint options for your projects. Acrylic craft paint is sold at craft stores and is an inexpensive supply for your upcycling crafts.
Glue
Standard white glue will get the job done on most craft projects. A glue stick would be convenient for paper crafts. And decoupage glue would be helpful for any projects you plan on covering with fabric or certain types of paper supplies.
Glue Gun
A glue gun is a favourite tool in the crafting world. Nothing dries faster than hot glue! T
here are a variety of sizes and corded and non-corded options available. They are easy to use but require safety precautions to prevent burns on your hands and fingers.
Paint Brushes
Craft paintbrushes will make your life easier. Depending on the project, different sizes and shapes, such as flat-edge and angled brushes, will be handy.
Scissors
Scissors are a standard supply for any crafter or maker. Basic scissors are fine for paper projects, but heavy-duty or speciality scissors are preferable for cutting thicker materials, such as plastic bottles.
Other cutting supplies, such as box cutters, craft knives, and paper cutters, may be convenient for different projects.
Drill
A simple, cordless drill from the hardware store is essential for many craft projects.
But What About Non-Recyclable Items?
Some items are recyclable but only accepted at specific locations or specific times of the year. If you can’t visit the recycling centres or wait for a donation window, a craft project might be your best solution.
Old Tyres
While there are ways to recycle old tyres, they aren’t allowed in most council recycling bins. But they can be upcycled, particularly for outdoor projects.
Painting tyres in bright colours and then upcycling them into ‘raised’ garden beds is also a fun way to add a bit of colour to your garden.
Plus, a tyre swing hanging on a tree is a classic example of repurposing a used tyre.
Medicine Packaging
Although empty medicine packaging can be taken to your local recycling centre, blister packs, and medicine bottles can be placed in your recycling bin at home, they’re perfect for craft projects, too.
Storing smaller supplies, such as beads, in pill bottles is a great way to reuse them. You can also glue one underneath a rock and use it as a secret key holder if you get locked out.
CDs
As the world of music goes digital, older forms of music get left behind. CDs and their plastic cases are only sometimes allowed in recycling bins. While donating to a thrift store is an option, so is donating to a craft project.
Broken CDs can be used to make shimmery mirrored birdbaths, planters, and Christmas decorations. The cases can also be refurbished into picture frames and even gift boxes for cards and cash.
Single-Serve Coffee Pods
Unfortunately, many popular single-serve coffee pods aren’t allowed in recycling bins. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to upcycle them once they are cleaned up.
Decorating the pods and adding them as ‘shades’ to a strand of twinkling lights is a fun way to put those plastic pods to good reuse. You can also turn them into quirky Christmas ornaments or use them as seed starter pots.
Bubble Wrap
Thin plastic like bubble wrap is made from low-quality plastic which cannot be recycled at home. If you have space, the best thing you can do with bubble wrap is hold onto it and reuse it again.
Alternatively, you can use it for crafting, like these DIY No Sew Bumble Bee Wings.
Need More Materials for Your Recycling Crafts? Try These…
If you have a specific craft project in mind but don’t have enough material, it’s always worth checking out these options.
Facebook Marketplace
Facebook Marketplace, plus town and village FB groups are a brilliant place to put a call-out for materials for your recycling crafts. ‘One man’s trash is another man’s treasure’, as they say. And you never know who may have a pile of old wallpaper, string or glass bottles gathering dust that they need to get rid of.
Online groups are also an excellent way to look for things and give others away to someone in need, such as moving boxes.
Local Restaurants and Shops
Local restaurants and shops always have a plethora of materials to dispose of. And it never hurts to ask a local business for help. This solution is especially good if a non-wine drinker who wants to make a wine bottle craft might ask a restaurant to set a few bottles aside for them.
Cash and Carry
Cash and Carry stores often sell their products in much larger quantities and, as a result, the containers they come in. Not only does this result in a lower unit cost to consumers, but it provides unique DIY opportunities for recycling bin crafters!
Animal Shelters
Animal shelters go through significant quantities of items such as cat litter, laundry detergent, and paper towels. Cat litter tubs can be upcycled into waste baskets and storage tubs. You could trade excess newspaper for a few empty litter tubs at your local shelter.
Swap With Friends and Neighbours
Trading with friends, neighbours, and colleagues is a great way to swap supplies for specific DIY projects.
The Advantage of Crafts Made from Recycled Items
The advantage of crafts made from recycled items are many! Not only does it encourage creativity, but it also saves money and landfill space, as well. Simple crafts encourage us to unplug from our devices and create something with our hands. Many people get tremendous satisfaction and self-appreciation from simple creative pursuits.
Even the most straightforward craft projects can aid relaxation and stress relief for adults and children alike.
So many of the materials in residential recycling bins end up in landfills, which makes crafting from recycling great for sustainability, as it prevents that from happening. Crafts made from recycled items ultimately provides a greener future.
Sarah Ramberg
Sarah Ramberg is the owner ofSadie Seasongoods, a website that celebrates all things secondhand. From upcycling ideas and thrifted decor to vintage-centric travel itineraries, Sadie Seasongoods is a one-stop shop for anyone who loves thrifting and approachable repurposing ideas. Sarah is also the author of “Crafting with Flannel” and has been featured in numerous media outlets and magazines.
So many great ideas!
Danielle | thereluctantblogger.co.uk
Just makes you think about stuff when you throw it, doesn’t it? :) It can (mostly) always be turned into something else.