My husband loves soda. I have tried to impress upon him that drinking soda isn’t good for his health but he loves it and isn’t ready to give it up just yet. When we buy his soda, he prefers it in the 2 liter bottles. He likes the 2 liter bottles for a couple of reasons. First, he thinks that soda in cans are too small. When he is going to drink soda, he wants a big ole glass of the stuff. Second, buying soda in the 2 liter bottles is less expensive than getting it in cans. He also thinks that he is helping the environment by getting it in a bigger container. I guess that having one empty 2 liter plastic bottle is better than having 6 empty aluminum soda cans.
Luckily, we are able to put these empty bottles in our recycling bin so that they can be recycled into other products. I got to thinking though. What if we didn’t have a recycling program where we live. What other things can be done with empty 2 liter plastic bottles? Here are 4 ideas that you may not have thought of:
- Make your toilet use less water. Fill up the empty 2 liter bottle with water, flush your toilet and before the tank fills back up, place the bottle in your toilet tank. Not only are you reusing the 2 liter bottle, keeping it out of a landfill, but you will also be saving water and money every time you flush.
- Turn it into a funnel. How many times have you needed a funnel and didn’t have one. It certainly has happened to me more than once. Cut off the top part of the 2 liter bottle and you have yourself a funnel.
- Insect control. Here is a good tip for those that are looking to keep those pesky insects under control. Cut off the upper 1/3 of the bottle. In the bottom part of the 2 liter bottle, put in some kind of sweet liquid. Anything will do, some kind of juice or you can simple use some water and add some sugar to it. Then, take the part that you cut off and place it upside down inside the bottom of the bottle. Bugs get in but can’t get out.
- Make a rain gauge. No need to go out and buy a rain gauge, when you can just make your own. Cut off the top part of the bottle. Put just enough water into the bottom to reach the line. Take a ruler and a permanent marker and measure off 1 inch increments. Flip over the top part of the bottle and insert it into the bottom. Put it outside and the next time it rains, you will know just how much it rained.
Just remember, recycle, reduce, and reuse. We only have one planet (at least until they finish building something suitable on the moon) let’s keep our home livable. Did you know that we use 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour? And that’s just in the US. Most of them are thrown away. I keep hoping that my husband will learn to like drinking water. Until then, I can at least recycle.
I’m sure that there are a lot more uses for 2 liter bottles. If you would like to leave your ideas, please do in the comment section.
I am a Costco member and they are very kind to send me the Costco Connection on a regular basis. I know that it is just a way to get you buy more products from them but I happen to like getting it (yes I know that I can view the same thing online and reduce the amount of paper being used but I haven’t made the switch yet, I’m working on it. There’s just something about touching the paper that you don’t get from a computer screen.)
Anyway, yesterday I got a new one in the mail and I was just about to reach the section with all of the gorgeous patio furniture that doesn’t have a chance of getting to my very small back yard, I came across a very interesting headline:
Cash for tech
And under that it said:
Trade in your electronics, get a Costco Cash card
Since, my husband and I do a lot of shopping at Costco and he is in absolute love with anything electronic, I decided to read the article.
It would appear that Costco has a new Trade-In & Recycle Program. According to the article, you can send in your old electronics including: laptops, cellphones, LCD monitors, MP3 players, gaming systems, GPS devices and a lot more.
Warning: if you ever plan on getting rid of an old computer you should read this article How To Protect Your Identity When Throwing Out A Computer before you do. Even if you are giving the computer to someone that you know you should take Identity Theft very seriously and do what you can to protect yourself.
Okay back to the cool stuff – I think that it is absolutely very cool and green to recycle your electronic gadgets and get paid too. The program at Costco is being done with Gazelle.com. If you are a member of Costco, you will want to recycle your old electronics through Costco’s website (Costco member get about 2.5% more money) but if you aren’t don’t worry, you can still take advantage of the program by going straight to www.Gazelle.com. Here is a short video on how they work:
If you have an item that isn’t accepted through the program but would like to recycle it you can check out Gazelle’s Recycle Network Directory to see if there is someone else that can help you recycle your gadgets.
Personally I think this is a very cool idea. I can’t wait to tell my husband where he can put his old electronic gadgets 
(Just kidding)
Tags: recycle, recycle cell phone, recycle computer, Recycling