Many of us survive off of bottled water and often drink other beverages out of plastic bottles. And, they’re hard to avoid.

Quite simply, it’s difficult and expensive to satiate all your thirsty needs with beverages packaged in glass, especially if you travel a lot. But even when you use plastic bottles, there are ways to extend their life cycle beyond one beverage.

Oftentimes, local faucet water quality is low enough to raise safety concerns, making bottled water the next best option – to say nothing of the convenience of an on-the-go plastic bottle beverage. However, the result of plastic bottle usage is that we are filling landfills with waste that could otherwise be re-used. Not to mention the health risks associated with exposure to plastic.

Here are 4 unique and fun ways to upcycle plastic bottles.

Before we dive into what you can do with used plastic bottles, let’s look at where we are today with a few astonishing statistics. Some 50 billion bottles of water are purchased each year, and despite existing recycling programs, 80 percent of these bottles end up in landfills. About 17 million barrels of oil are used to make bottled water annually. Bottled water costs 1,000 times more than tap water and the plastic leaches toxins into the water, which has been linked to reproductive problems and even cancer.

Upcycled Ideas for Plastic Bottles

1. Decorative Flowers

Cut off the bottom end of the plastic bottle, a few inches up its length. Then, use scissors to cut strips, from the cut edge to just below the cap. Fray the strips by pulling them up and flattening them, creating a petal-like effect. Use a marker or paint to decorate the “petals” and you’ve got yourself a flower. Make several flowers and connect them together with wire to hang them around the house or in kids’ rooms.

2. Water Sprinkler

This is just pure genius. Attach the top of the bottle with the end of a hose. Fasten the two together so that the hose perfectly enters the bottle without any leakage and that it is exceptionally secure in place. Poke holes at the bottle of the plastic bottle and turn on the water. This apparatus can be used to water plants or for play.

3. Paint Project

The bottom of most plastic bottles also has a flower appearance. Dip the bottom of plastic bottles into various colored paints and press them against paper to create consistent flower designs. This is a great craft activity for children who will be proud of their clean-cut and colorful designs!

4. Food Storage

If you don’t have a Zip-Lock bag around, take a regular plastic bag and make your own seal-savvy feature. Cut the top of plastic bottles a few inches down the throat. Store grains, legumes and other food products in a plastic bag and push the top of the bag through the underside of the cut plastic bottle and up through the open top. Press the edges of the bag down and over the edges of the circular opening and secure the cap. You’ve got yourself an easy-to-open-and-close, tightly-sealed storage bag.

Related on EcoSalon

Levi’s Makes Wearing Garbage Fashionable with ‘Plastic’ Jeans

9 Ways to Ditch the Bottle Once and for All

DIY: 10 Things to Make From Plastic Bags

Photo Credit: Steven Depolo

The post 4 Ways to Upcycle Plastic Bottles appeared first on EcoSalon.

This spring, you might be wearing the latest in denim fashion trends courtesy of Levi’s: used plastic bottles.

“These jeans are made of garbage” is the pitch line Levi Strauss is using for its latest denim line, Waste‹Less, which uses eight brown or green plastic bottles to make every pair of the jeans. Unveiled last fall, the jeans are hitting stores as part of spring denim collections and range in price from $69 to $128—quite a bit for wearable garbage, but still a comparable price for a pair of good quality jeans.

Twenty percent of every pair of the Waste‹Less jeans are made from entirely recycled plastic materials, and store displays will feature crushed soda bottles to help illustrate the brand’s commitment to reducing its environmental impact.

Levi Strauss was once known as the workingman’s brand of durable denim capable of standing up to hard labor, whether on the farm or in the factory. The company now wants to be known as the sustainability brand, working awareness into every aspect of the business. And as the biggest jean maker in the world (sales in 2011 were nearly $5 billion)—the impact Levi Strauss can have in fostering a green message is immeasurable.

Changes started happening for Levi’s in 2007 when it assessed an environmental impact on Dockers and 501 jeans, reports Businessweek, “Levi’s found that 49 percent of the water use during the lifetime of a pair of 501 jeans occurred at the very beginning, with cotton farmers.” The company joined the Better Cotton Initiative in order to help farmers in countries including Pakistan, India, Brazil, and Mali to reduce the amount of water used in growing cotton. While growing organic cotton has proved too expensive for the brand to continue at this time (they killed their organic jean line in 2008), the low-water cotton is proving to be just as beneficial a pursuit as water scarcity, particularly in the cotton-growing countries, is a very serious issue.

The first low-water cotton was finally harvested last year—and made its way into more than 5 million pairs of jeans at a rate of about 5 percent per pair. By 2015 the goal is 20 percent per pair. To further encourage better resource management, Levi’s also ran a marketing campaign suggesting people wash their jeans less often, using only cold water, and line-drying them instead of putting them through energy-draining dryers.

Now, as the new Waste‹Less is hitting stores, 3.5 million plastic bottles have avoided ending up in landfills, or the ocean in the company’s first run of about 400,000 items (including jean jackets). While only a small drop in the plastic bucket—Americans consumed 33 billion bottles of soda in 2011, reports Businessweek—it’s certainly a good starting point, setting an example for industry and making consciousness affordable and fashionable. “Is turning eight bottles of plastic into a pair of jeans worth it? I think so,” James Curleigh, president of the Levi’s brand told Businessweek. “Some things are more for making a point than a purpose. We want critical mass.”

Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

Image: Levi Strauss

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Seven creative and inexpensive ways to improve your garden.

Whether you dapple with a few indoor plants, garden on the patio with containers or have a full-fledged backyard mini-farm, you’re probably looking for creative ways to save money, time and resources. Luckily for you, incorporating recycled and reused materials can actually make your gardening projects cheaper, easier and less time consuming – not to mention far less wasteful! Last year, we gave you seven reused items to boost your garden. This year, we rounded up seven more.

Reuse Germination

If you’re starting plants from seeds this year, don’t waste your hard-earned cash on tiny planters from the garden center. Save a few bucks – and get a little more use out of your throw-aways – by making your own seed-starters from recycled materials!

To make your own biodegradable mini-planter (that’s right, no transplanting!), you will need scissors and a toilet paper or paper towel roll.

How to make it:

1. Using scissors, cut six to eight small slits in the end of your toilet paper roll (if using a paper towel roll, cut the roll into three pieces before beginning this step).

2. Fold the strips down so they overlap.

3. Fill carefully with wet soil, and set in a baking sheet.

4. Plant one seed per roll. After germination, just plant the whole thing in your garden!

If you don’t mind transplanting your seedlings, you can use all kinds of recyclables for germination: Takeout containers, plastic cups, soda bottles and shoe boxes – just to name a few.

Unfortunately, most takeout containers – including mixed-material takeout cups and foam clam shells – are notoriously difficult to recycle. So, if you have a few boxes, cups and clam shells left over from eating out, why not reuse them as planters to boost your gardening projects?

Take Out Container Planters

Just wash out the container, fill with wet soil and plant your seedling as usual.

For best results, stick with plants that require little root space, such as single herb plants or succulents like cacti and aloe.

Not sure how planting in takeout boxes will match your garden decor? Think creatively and opt for decorative containers, such as Chinese takeout boxes and colorful to-go cups, to add a whimsical touch to your garden display – whether it’s in your backyard or your living room.

Popsicle Stick Garden Markers

If the kids are starting to chow down on ice pops for the summer, why not save those sticks for reuse in your garden?

To use your throw-aways to make customized markers for your garden or seedlings, you’ll need Popsicle sticks, a permanent marker and a reusable cloth.
How to make it:
1. Apply a few drops of rubbing alcohol or a solution of warm water and sea salt to the ends of your ice pop sticks. Use the reusable cloth to rub off any remaining stickiness.

2. Let the sticks dry in the sun for at least an hour.

3. Label your sticks with permanent marker, and use them to mark crops in your herb garden or veggie plot.

If you’re feeling ambitious, you can also make your own customized garden markers from old milk jugs using this simple tutorial from TLC.

Plastic Bottle Irrigation

Remembering to water your container veggies and potted flowers can be tough. But you could save loads of time and water by setting up a self-irrigation system in your container plants.

Sounds tricky, right? It actually couldn’t be simpler. All you’ll need is scissors, a plastic bottle, a hand shovel and about five minutes to get the job done.

How to make it:
1. Using scissors, carefully cut the bottom out of your plastic bottle. Remove bottle cap and set aside for recycling.

2. Use a hand shovel to dig a 6-inch-deep hole in the potted plant of your choice, as far away from the plant as possible to avoid damaging roots.

3. Place your plastic bottle in the hole, bottleneck end down. Use your hands to pack soil around the bottle so it stands upright.

4. Fill the bottle with water as needed, and watch it slowly seep into the soil – saving you time and nurturing your thirsty plants.

For a more advanced self-watering container, check out this tutorial from the University of Maryland Extension.

Light Bulb Terrariums

Not sure what to do with all those old incandescent light bulbs? Sure, you can recycle them. But why not find a clever way to reuse them first?

Once the electrical components are removed, light bulbs make perfect homes for air plants and water-saving succulents.

If you’re a seasoned crafter and have hollowed out a light bulb before, this project will be a walk in the park. But if you’ve never tinkered with a light bulb, consult a tutorial, like these from Instructables and Apartment Therapy, before getting started.

Once your bulb is cleaned out, all you’ll need is some succulent potting soil and small potting pebbles (and your plants, of course!).

How to make it:
1. Add a layer of potting pebbles to your light bulb as a foundation.

2. Add a layer of succulent potting soil, along with decorative moss if desired.

3. Gently place your succulent inside the bulb. Succulents don’t need much water. For best results, allow the soil to dry out a bit before watering.

Bucket Gardening

If you live in an apartment or don’t have a yard,container gardening is a great small-space solution for growing your own produce at home.

Garden retailers offer vast displays of jumbo terra cotta pots, plastic planters and wooden boxes – often priced at $50 or more. But why spend more when a recycled option could actually yield better results?

Five gallons of soil is optimal for most container veggies, including large plants like tomatoes, eggplant and squash. Larger containers tend to require more water, while smaller containers won’t provide enough root space.

Since they’re the perfect size, why not break out all those old 5-gallon buckets from pet food and potting soil and reuse them as planters for your container garden?

Just remember to wash each container well before filling with soil. Also, since you want to grow healthy food, avoid choosing containers that were used to hold toxic substances – even after they have been washed.

For best results, cut at least four 1/4-inch holes at the bottom of your buckets for draining excess water.

Wine Bottle Edging

Looking to add a touch of pizzazz to your garden or backyard landscaping? Rescue a few wine and beer bottles from your recycling bin to assemble a playful border that’s sure to turn heads.

Use this handy tutorial from ReadyMade or this video how-to from A Gardener’s Notebook to transform your recyclable glass into a piece of reuse art that’s perfect for the garden.

In the interest of full disclosure, you’ll need more than a few bottles for this.

So, if you don’t think your drinking habits can keep up, ask local restaurants, taverns and wineries if you can pick up some of their leftover bottles on a weekly basis until you’ve gathered enough to complete the project. Most will be happy to oblige.

-By Mary Mazzoni

More from Earth911:

PHOTOS: Rad Reused Planter Ideas

8 Things You Probably Aren’t Doing in Your Garden

PHOTOS: Stylish Recycled Decor for the Backyard

Images: girlingearstudio, MeganEHansen, jstuppy, sa_ku_ra, iEEEj, rfarmer, Tobyotter

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Is it plastic technology or just consuming less plastic that’s the answer? It’s up to us.

It’s a very simple equation: Plastic=bad. This is why we stick our fold-up totes in a purse to go to the grocery store, and why we fill up our water bottles at the fountain instead of buying another from the vending machine. But as hard as we try, it’s difficult to eliminate plastic entirely. For example: Despite my best efforts, at this very moment my house shelters one bottle of Heinz ketchup in the fridge and a bottle of Nyquil in the medicine cabinet.

As it exists today, plastic is lightweight, versatile, convenient and affordable – qualities that not all packaging materials possess (we’re looking at you, glass and paper). The solution is to find a sustainable alternative for traditional PET, or polyethylene terephthalate, which is made from fossil fuels.

The Coca-Cola Company thinks they’ve found it. They’ve implemented a new plant-based PET into their bottling line, which they’re reporting has a lower environmental impact than traditional PET. That’s why four other companies – Nike, Proctor & Gamble, Ford and Heinz, – have teamed up with Coca-Cola under the umbrella of the Plant PET Technology Collaborative (PTC), to fund research and accelerate the use of plant-based plastics.

According to Katherine Schermerhorn, a spokesperson for Coca-Cola, plant PET is currently made from a number of different sources, including sugarcane, sugar beets, corn and cassava. The PTC is currently developing criteria to ensure that plant PET will be made solely from non-food competing sources, and will be produced sustainably.

Most of their future projects are still confidential at this point. According to Ed Sawicki, the associate director at Proctor and Gamble, the PTC will be looking at work at universities, research labs and other academic institutions in addition to the member company labs.

But the work done so far looks promising. Schermerhorn estimates that Coca-Cola’s use of plant PET packaging has, over the past two years, helped save more than 100,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. In 2009, Coca-Cola produced nearly 10 billion bottles using plant PET, and has a standing goal to use the material in all their PET plastic bottles by 2020. Heinz is currently licensing the technology from Coke for use in their plastic ketchup bottles in the United States and Canada.

It seems oddly incongruous to hold up several multinational corporations for laudable business practices. The phrase “sustainable packaging” seems to be an oxymoron. Moreover, it’s hard to picture a staid product like a 2-liter bottle of Coke as of-the-moment and eco-friendly.

But the ubiquity of these products is the very reason why it’s important for these companies to take a step in the right direction. Bringing reusable bags to the grocery store won’t stop everyone in the world from buying the occasional bottle of condiments (even when it’s so easy to make).

But we’ll all breathe easier knowing that even so, the air is still a little bit cleaner…right?

Image: Steven Depalo

The post Will Plants Be the Answer to Our Plastic Obsession? appeared first on EcoSalon.

Water is being seen as the next great war for which we will fight for and against each other to get access.

Water, water everywhere? Maybe so, but it remains a precious resource that the modern world seems keen to squander in increasingly inventive ways. This week we suggested a single Superbowl ad could give 140,000 people water for life, so we thought a deep dive into our watery archives to resurface more about the stuff of life was in order.

Less than one percent of all the world’s fresh water is available for human use in the form of lakes, underground sources, and reservoirs. The rest is soaked into the soil, too deep underground to reach, or manifests itself in the icecaps of the world’s polar regions.

 – 6 Things You Didn’t Know About Water

 A single bottle of water generally runs about one to two dollars. In some cases, such as at concerts or amusement parks, one bottle can cost up to nearly three dollars. Even if bottled water is bought in bulk, the price still averages around .50 to .89 cents per bottle. Filtered tap water is essentially the same product and costs a fraction of the price.

 – 9 Reasons To Ditch The Bottle Once And For All

The toilet of tomorrow will not flush about on its own pot of porcelain, nor will it necessarily compost. The toilet of tomorrow will be a self-regulating and mindful machine, eminently cognizant of the water crises ahead.

 – Toilets Designed For The Water Crisis Ahead

It takes time and energy to pump the water out of the ground, bottle it, label it, market it, sell it and transport it. (Time and energy that is doubling up on what the government is already doing in supplying you with clean, safe, free tap water.) It’s bad enough when the water is from a Scottish spring and sold in London or from two states over in the United States, but when you’re selling Evian from France in Australia and Fiji water from the South Pacific in Denver, there’s something seriously wrong.

 – Stop The Bottle In 2009

Keep a few large containers under the bathroom sink and in the kitchen to fill while you’re waiting for the hot or cold to kick in. You can use this room-temperature water for your houseplants and herbs, or for rinsing delicate dishware, mopping the floor and washing dusty windows.

 – 3 Easy Water Saving Tips

Even though each person only requires 48 liters of water on a daily basis, individuals in the United States use an average of 500 liters, those in Canada an average of 300 liters and those in England an average of 200 liters.

 – 10 Amazing Facts About Water Use Worldwide

Images: laszlo-photo, FreeWine, calliope, Roca, daviddesign, Teo and Prabhu B.

The post From The Vault: The Water Chronicles appeared first on EcoSalon.

Dear Bottled Water,

We see right through you. Your harmful BPA. The way you litter our landfills. The millions of oil barrels it takes to produce and transport you every year. Suffice to say, you’re in hot water.

Thankfully, a new water filtration company called Aquaovo is working hard to reduce our dependence on you. Aquaovo’s signature product, the Ovopur, is an award-winning water filter that’s as eco-conscience as they come and as stylish as we’ve seen.

Designed with sustainable, renewable and recyclable materials, the attractive, egg-shaped Ovopur© filters water through its exclusive Aquacristal© cartridge. Inspired by the same filtration process found in nature, the cartridge consists of four unique layers of crystals that neutralize, sanitize, soften and purify water – all without the use of electricity.

Says Ovopur’s designer Manuel Desrochers: “Our bodies are made of 70 percent water, and I thought to myself, what better way to take care of my health than drink the purest water available. After years of learning about water purity, I discovered a better way to filter water than what’s currently on the market. Then, I designed a filter that would be artistic and beautiful enough for people to admire and think of water in a new way.”

To show our support for Aquaovo’s efforts, we’re giving away an Aquaovo Therm-O to one lucky EcoSalon reader. The 16.9 oz glass bottle, which retails for $28, is a sleek and safe alternative to your harmful plastic variety. In addition, the double-pane design makes the Therm-O perfect for both hot and cold liquids. It even comes with a built in tea strainer.

We hate to pour it on, but that’s a lot more than you can say, Bottled Water.

Love,
EcoSalon

P.S. For complete giveaway rules go here, and you’ll find FTC guidelines here. The giveaway will end Tuesday, April 27 at 11:59pm (PST). Good luck! And don’t miss our other Earth Week giveaway, which includes three sets of LUSH’s most popular naked products wrapped in an eco-conscious Knot-Wrap!

The post Aquaovo Therm-O Giveaway appeared first on EcoSalon.

In the highly ideal world of tomorrow, we’ll have forgotten all about soda bottles.

Oh, we’ll remember they used to exist and what they were for. We’ll know we made and discarded an incredible amount of them. We’ll have finally weaned ourselves off the bottle, so much so that we won’t recognise the name – even though they’re still very much around.

“Soda bottles”? Oh, what they make lampshades from? The same material as greenhouse walls, watering cans and homemade windmills (pictured)?  Like my zip-up purse, then?

You mean…the arms of coat hangers?

(They used to make hanger arms from polystyrene foam? That’s just nasty).

Like all the best ideas, the Rethink Concepts Hanger from designer Xuan Yu seems obvious in retrospect. It tackles our PET infestation by upcycling two of the little blighters into lightweight, well-padded hanger arms. All you buy is the hook – and when you do so, 10% of the sale price goes to helping people slake their thirst in developing nations. (And try upcycling to the max by hanging recycled polyester garments on them).

And to think, these…plastic tube-like things get thrown away. (Whatever they’re called. I forget).

Images: noquedanblogs

The post Upcyling Soda Bottles: Just Forget It appeared first on EcoSalon.

The bottled water industry has branded itself by importing water from pristine streams and mountain springs in some of the world’s most exotic places: Fiji, Tahiti, the Swiss Alps. Now you can go ahead and add North Korea’s Demilitarized zone to that list.

If you weren’t seduced by bottled water companies touting the natural, spiritual and physical benefits of wherever their H2O comes from, now you can down a beverage originating in one of the most guarded and protected areas on earth.

DMZ 2km is South Korea’s newest brand of bottled water, selling water from a spring that runs under the Demilitarized Zone, the 4 kilometer-wide buffer zone South and North Korea. What benefits does DMZ 2km water have over the competition? Apparently it’s all about branding, or as some might call it, greenwashing.

“We decided on water from the DMZ because it’s different and the environment there is untouched, so many people think it’s clean,” says Lee Sang-hyo, a spokesman for the company, quoted in the Guardian.

Even if people think the source water is cleaner, you have to wonder what DMZ water will do that others don’t. Make you more skilled as an international negotiator? Make you sleeker and stronger so you look better in an army outfit?

No matter its purported incredible qualities, DMZ 2km is just another brand of bottled water contributing to the industry’s overall impact. Seduced by water from far-off springs and streams, and the convenience of bottled beverages, consumers easily forget about the real effects of bottled water and the industry behind it.

In 2007, the U.S. bottled water industry alone accounted for $11.5 billion. On a global scale, in 2008, over 53 billion gallons of bottled water were consumed. These are not small numbers. Marketing another hip brand of bottled H2O promotes consumption and further waste, so stick to drinking tap water in a reusable bottle.

Photo credit: Guardian

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Did you know that each year Americans throw away around 100 billion polyethylene plastic bags? Less than 0.6 percent of those are recycled. And that Americans buy 28 billion disposable plastic bottles of water a year?

When we’re on the go it’s easy to forget about the real impact of our choices, especially when it comes to plastic. The ease of buying an occasional bottle of water or packing groceries in a plastic bag when you forget your reusable one might not feel like an environmentally detrimental choice, but small choices add up quickly. Fortunately, changes in the industry are slowly happening, making it easier for you to commit to kicking the single-use plastic habit.

Plastic bag bans and fees are a common topic of debate in environmental communities, and Wal-Mart is the latest business to join in the discussion. Starting January 1st, Wal-Mart will institute a pilot program at three stores in California, where no single-use plastic bags will be provided to consumers. Shoppers will instead have a choice between purchasing three different reusable bags, reasonably priced at $1, 50 cents and 15 cents. The pilot program will test how consumers will deal with stores that do not offer free bags. Not providing plastic bags could have a significant impact at large stores like Wal-Mart; the retail giant alone was responsible for handing out 27 billion plastic bags in 2007.

The anti-plastic bag movement is also spreading on regional levels. This week Delaware passed a law that will require larger stores to all offer reusable bags to their consumers. Even in Phuket, Thailand, a group of business owners recently passed an agreement to institute a small fee on plastic bags. Although it is unknown what impact policies like this will have in the long term, it’s certainly a step in the right direction, encouraging consumers to choose reusable bags whenever possible.

The other culprit in single-use plastic waste is bottled water. In a progressive move, Canada-based Naya Spring Water announced this week that it is the first bottled water company to use 100% recycled plastic in its bottles. The company also reportedly recycles 96% of waste from its plant, including paper, cardboard and plastic.

But is buying a recycled plastic bottle water that’s still a single-use item that sustainable? It’s great to recycle materials that otherwise would have gone straight to the landfill, but supporting the purchase of single-use products inevitably leads us to consume more and waste more. In a pinch, opt for the recycled plastic bottle of water, but when possible, keep your reusable drinking vessel in tow.

Photo credits: vieux bandit, zone41

The post Is Single-Use Plastic on Its Way Out? appeared first on EcoSalon.