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Living green in a colorful world

Friday Finds

This week I've been thinking a lot about all those plastic bottles. We try to buy things in glass whenever we have a choice, but so much of what we use comes in plastic bottles.... juice, syrup, mayonaise.... seems like almost everything is packaged in plastic bottles! Fortunately our area has an extensive curbside recycling program that includes many types of plastic, but even still I thought it might be fun to look at some plastic bottle reuse craft projects.

Building Nemo
Here's a fun one for the kids that I found over at National Wildlife Federation. It requires some adult help, but is a great opportunity to talk with your children or grandchildren about reuse and recycling. Also a great lead in to talk with older children about the North Pacific Garbage Gyre and the problems of plastic pollution.

Forever Spring Flowers

Here's another rainy day project for kids, or doctor these up for a more adult theme.

Here's some reused bottle crafts for the garden

Mr Brown Thumb shows us how easy it is to start seeds in a plastic bottle seed starter

Make a full size greenhouse using recycled plastic bottles. It can be done, these kids did it!

The Family Corner has easy instuctions for turning a 2 liter bottle into a bird feeder with a perch

Water your tomato plants slowly and directly to the root. Poke holes around a plastic bottle ( I like a 2 liter for this) bury the bottle into the ground along with your tomato transplants. Now when you water, fill the bottle and the water will seep out the holes directly at the root of your tomato plants. This will also help prevent blight which can happen when you get water on the foliage of your tomato plants.

Create a Cloche. Cut the bottom off of a plastic bottle, then when you put out your transplants, cover them with this "dome" of plastic to form a cloche (greenhouse effect). Be sure to remove this as the plant matures and the weather gets warm.

Instructables has a great tutorial for an herb garden grown in plastic bottles

I haven't tried this one, but anything to keep the slugs out of my garden is worth a try. My Zero Waste has a blog post with video to make a slug collar for your seedlings

Make your own "wall of water" plant heater. Fill jugs with water and arrange them in a ring around plants. When the weather warms, use the water in the jugs to water your garden and save jugs to use in the late season to extend your growing season .

Problem with wasps or yellow jackets in your
yard? Try making this do it yourself wasp trap using a plastic bottle.

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Christi @ FatBottomBags's Page

Hey cool! I figured out how to feed my blog here :0) Check it out if you have a chance Jan 27

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when we all do our small part we can change the big picture!

FatBottomBags! were born from my desire to do something positive to help the environment. I was concerned about what to do with the plastic shopping bags that I had at home. I wanted to find a way to put them to good use and keep them out of the waste stream.

I discovered a technique to use them for crochet projects and developed my own pattern for FatBottomBags!

I started small. First I made several bags for my own use. I got a lot of positive feedback about the bags I was using. People seemed excited by the idea that something useful could be created from this wasted resource!

By using my own reusable bags, I stopped collecting so many of those plastic ones so I began to gather them from friends and neighbors to recycle them. And now I am recycling bags for 20 different families!

I wanted to make a difference for the planet and I am! So far I've saved nearly 4500 plastic shopping bags from entering the waste stream or worse yet winding up in our oceans.

When we all do our small part we really can change the big picture!

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Comment Wall (4 comments)

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At 7:23pm on June 14, 2009, Dink Brauk said…: Eeree Meeree Earthling Christi!
I see you are an animal lover! I am Zork and Meera's alien cat/dog. Would you mind if I put some of your animal photos on my own website at itsthenimalsdidiot.com ?

You can email more photos and videos to me at dinkey@itstheanimalsdidiot.com

Thanks!
Dink

At 1:09pm on May 14, 2009, Jim**Ray said…: Get the hottest myspace comments without ever leaving myspace!

At 5:37pm on May 12, 2009, Jana Arnold said…: FatBottomBag... okay so what is you real name? You should upload a photo of you bags and share where we can purchase them. I'm sure Zork won't mind.

Lummi Island must be a wonderful place to live! I'm sure you are very in touch with nature there. I was in Seattle once.. love the area. Also - how can we all follow you on twitter? I'm at @janaarnold

At 1:55pm on May 12, 2009, Zork said…: Eeree Meeree (hello) Earthling FatBottomBags,

You are proof to all Earthlings that one human can make a difference. Keep up the great work.

Thank you for joining Zork Planet. It is your planet now too. Make yourself comfortable and be green like me.

Your beautiful planet is in major peril because of Didiot humans who continue to destroy it. One thing I have learned traveling the galaxy for thousands of years is that one person can make a difference in the future outcome of the planet.

The Zork Revolution, like any other revolution, is always started by a few individuals and groups who have a passion and desire to change things.

Every human can do simple things that could make a huge difference overnight in making this planet greener. Imagine if one million humans overnight made the Zork Pledge as part of their daily living. Imagine if there were 10 million humans. Imagine if it was 100 million. The consumption of energy would be substantially reduced overnight. That is the simple power of the Zork Revolution.

Meeree Eeree (ciao),
Zork

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Profile Information

Earthling, do you promise to follow the Zork Pledge to be green like Zork?

yep, I'm already doing it!

Why have you joined the Zork Revolution?

I want to see the world be more green. People we all make a difference! I want my difference to be positive

How did you hear about Zork Planet?

twitter

Please tell us about yourself and your life on this planet.

I make reusable tote bags from recycled "disposable" plastic shopping bags. I'm an organic gardener with a compost heap and a worm bin. I live on an island and conserve water. I volunteer with a local marine mammal stranding network. I go out into my community to spread the word about the harm plastic shopping bags are doing to our environment!