101 Uses For a Plastic Bottle..

reply to post by TheRedneck


Thanks for the information on plastics. I did not realise there were so many different types.... Most of the things that are showing bottle use here would cause little or no harm to people. Even if they did cause damage they would still be useful in a survival situation. Sometimes anything is better than nothing.

reply to post by 12voltz


Well that looks very pretty. It is amazing that you can turn rubbish into something so beautiful...........

reply to post by purplemer

Not a problem; glad to help. Most people do not realize what a plastic really is, how many kinds there are, or even how important plastics are.

Plastic, in a general sense, is the ultimate re-use/re-cycle solution. Most plastics are made using polymer chains from oil refinement: the waste that cannot be used for gasoline, diesel fuel, motor oil, etc. This stuff is pretty toxic in itself, since the heavier polymer chains are pretty much useless to the environment and can strangle wildlife and plant life. So, instead of dumping these useless materials into a landfill somewhere that will then be uninhabitable for a few hundred years, we convert them into drink bottles, packaging materials, automobile parts, lightweight housings, filler for computer chips, ceramics for high-temperature environments, insulation to save power, and a myriad of other uses. Without plastics, society would be much less advanced and all those toys we have come to rely on simply wouldn't exist.

I have said for many years that we have things backward: we build houses that have potentially useful lives measuring in terms of generations out of wood, which easily rots, then make drink bottles which have a useful lifetime of sometimes as little as a few hours out of a material which lasts hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. At least with the information provided in this thread, people can reuse plastics again and again in ways that most never think of. For that, sir, I commend you!

Just today, my son was changing his oil and was about to toss four oil bottles into the garbage. I looked at them and saw removable trays for holding small parts: simply remove one side, glue the top into a hole in a board, and you have a pretty nice container! So they are not sitting in the garbage waiting to go to a landfill. Regardless of how one feels about "plastic", that is a positive use instead of a negative one.

Oh, and there are no such things as "plasticides"... that is a term which has been used by the uninformed to try and demonize plastic; it sounds a lot like "pesticide", which is by definition a poison. There are "plasticizers", but these are generally not particularly harmful and are only used to allow plastics to be created from raw materials by "softening" the internal structure during manufacture. Some are "endocrine disruptors" that in quantity have been found to be harmful, but since they are used because of their ability to react with polymer chains and form new molecules, there are almost no plasticizers left in plastic in raw form after plastic is manufactured.

TheRedneck

We used to use them as frog and crawdad catchers. Just cut a hole in the right spot, tie it down, set it and forget it.

Cut the top off, turn it upside down inside the base of the bottle and you have a nice minnow trap. Ive used this many times when Ive run out of bait

Another boat...

reply to post by purplemer


Another use for the plastic bottle...

reply to post by Rapha


...And your water has a bunch of chemicals from the plastic leeched into it.

How did the gravity bong not get listed? Great for smoking tobacco!

"Easy long term food storage for a variety of stapes: rice, beans, grains (like polenta & cream of wheat) and sugar. Buy in bulk, store in clean empty bottles and use what you need as you need it! They are water and air tight and keep bugs out! So much better than 5, 10 or 55 gallon containers or even sacks. 1 and 2 liter sizes are great for trading too!

reply to post by purplemer


plastic bottle rafts...!

I love seeing people's ingenuity and creative spirit. It gives me hope for the human race.

Very useful information.

Many thanks.

Some more versatile uses for plastic bottles..

A home





A cistern



The link has a lot more images

purp..)

Found another great use for plastic bottles....

This guy has found a way to turn them into string using a simple tool he designed..