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Top 10 ways to reuse a wine bottle
If you are anything like the db team, it won’t take long to amass a collection of empty wine bottles.
Credit: thisoldhouse.co
Recycling unwanted wine bottles is of course a must. Glass is 100% recyclable and can be endlessly reprocessed with no loss of quality, helping to conserve non-renewable fossil fuels and reduce the emission of harmful gasses into the atmosphere.
However in the spirit of upcycling, where old products are given a new lease of life rather than being recycled, why not consider turning your empty bottles into a nifty gadget, decorative feature or even a piece of furniture? You would be amazed at the number of ways in which a wine bottle can be put to good use, long after you have enjoyed its contents.
We have scoured the web to bring you some of the most creative uses for your empties. Click through to find out more…
As a slow drip irrigator
Turn your used wine bottles into a slow drip irrigator to feed your plants. Simply drill a hole through a cork and stopped a bottle filled with water. Position the bottle neck first into your plant pot to give your plants a steady stream of moisture.
As a quirky bird feeder
Give your garden birds some love and brush up on your carpentry by fashioning a wine bottle feeder. Simply leave a space at the bottle of the feeder for the seeds to trickle into.
As a single stem vase
Simple, but effective. Reuse your bottle as a decorative vase.
As garden edging
For something a bit different, drive your empties into the ground to create a garden path lined with your wine bottle memories, or as a flowerbed border.
As a boot stand
Have trouble getting your tall boots to stand up straight? Tuck a wine bottle inside to keep your closet ship shape.
As a trendy chalk message board
Pick up a pot of chalkboard paint and turn your empty bottles into a quirky notepad. You could start by writing yourself a reminder to “buy more wine”.
As a creative light display
Feed a string of lights into a bottle by carefully drilling a 3/4 inch hole using a tile grinder in the back of a bottle and light it up like a Christmas tree.
As a book end
Credit: thisoldhouse.com
No special skills required, simply use your most attractively labelled or sentimental bottle of wine as a book end. Filling it with sand will give it greater stability.
As a storage container
Who needs mason jars when you can keep your store cupboard essentials in a wine bottle. Perfect for rice, lentils or other grains and dried goods, as well as M&Ms.
As a creative coffee table
For the more adventurous DIY-er, try your hand at creating a low-slung coffee table, topped off with some floral foliage.
To build a house
Finally, you could use your empties to build a house. Yes, a house. A Russian man has achieved just that by building a house made almost entirely of Champagne bottles in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk where it is known as the “Palace of Oz”. Around 12,000 bottles were needed to build the 99-square meter house, which took three years to complete. While not a job for the casual DIY-er, the feat should be applauded as a masterclass in upcycling.
You forgot wine bottle candles in this article.
Excellent article! These wine bottle uses are incredible. Most products are recycled and reused which are also best in reducing waste. Certainly, i will try one at home. In fact, i have already purchased an excellent wine and i have stumbled upon an article at http://mywinecanada.com/wineblog/pair-white-wine-red-meat/ which suggests that wine are great with red meat. So, i’ll definitely cook tonight! Then, i’ll use the bottle for making my own masterpiece. Thanks for sharing this post!
Nesecito saber si para decorar la tierra con las botellas la entierro basia o llena de tierra.
Glass is most definitely not “…100% recyclable and can be endlessly reprocessed with no loss of quality, helping to conserve non-renewable fossil fuels and reduce the emission of harmful gasses into the atmosphere.” I’m an ecologist and a conservationist. I would love to talk about the falacies of that statement. That being said, reusing is much more sustainable, and I love that this article hits on that. I would love to see more of these clever ideas.
Could you elaborate? I myself have always read that glass is recycled into more glass, while plastic can only be “downcycled” into lesser-quality plastics – while leaching chemicals into whatever they touch. Or is the energy consumption in the glass recycling process excessive? In any case I’ve been dismayed that there seem to be fewer and fewer facilities that will accept glass for recycling, as this could mean that companies will stop selling their products in glass bottles, which would mean that we would have to only buy food packaged in plastic or buy goods made of plastic instead of glass.
Thank you for your tips given…it will come in handy