Reuse those plastic water bottles

I drink lots of bottled water. With all this talk about going "green" all of us should be looking at ways to keep those small plastic water bottles down to a minimum. In addition to refilling those bottles from a 5 gallon dispenser I use those bottles to house my brugmansia cuttings, and they work great. They can also be sterilized, scrubbed and reused. I just thought I would pass on my green tip to everyone. Let's try to reduce the number of these bottles in circulation because they don't break down and will remain in our landfills forever.


Lets use this thread to share all of our "green" tips!

This message was edited May 8, 2008 8:25 AM

2 liter soda bottles have worked great for me for the past few years. Gee.. have some cuttings? LOL I would not know what to do with that many or where to put them.

Great idea xeriscape! I also root my brugs or other cuttings and plant seedlings in water bottles. It is a great way to reuse the bottles. A another plus is you get to see when they root and how the roots are growing which is neat. :)

Sincerely,
Acacius48

Great idea Gary..

I recycle, so I am already keeping mine out of the landfill.. but I'm always open to more ideas to reduce, reuse!

I recently bought pistachios in a tall clear plastic container.. when it was empty, what a perfect lil greenhouse! :) So naturally, one wasn't enough.. LOL I went back for more..

Yeah me to zz I hate to waste I am going to use some of mine to do the same..

These plastice buckets come in handy for rooting cuttings. Haven't tried rooting in water yet.
Thanks again Mary!

Crazy, you may want to get in the habit of keeping varieties separate, just in case one of them has the cooties.... it won't infect the others.

Although I think we are all guilty of filling buckets in haste especially when it's an issue of room.

:)

I start them in separate small water bottles and after they proove themselves to be healthy, they move into the larger one with the bubbler.

I have a brug growing in a 1 iter bottle right now.. full of roots and needs to be potted up or put in the ground.

Didn't think of that. Thanks ZZ

Funny how my whole generation grew up without ever drinking bottled water. We somehow missed the huge benefit of a.) making all those bottles, b.) putting the water into them (often water of lesser or equal quality to what flowed from our taps), c.) driving huge quantities of the water from bottling plants to stores, and d.) disposing of said bottles, even in the clever way you suggest.

How about this? --let's all just get over this stupid bottled water thing.We've got a perfectly wonderful, low-cost system in place to move good water from its sources straight to virtually any room in any building anywhere in the whole country. LET'S USE IT!!

Nice looking cuttings, by the way!

For years I have put small holes in the bottom and used them for starting plants from seeds. We can't drink our county water so we use lots of bottles. Finally last year my neighbor started doing this and now we all are saving on peat pots and plant plug material.

Lavina

Mr Plunket what people don't know about municipal water supplies can sometimes kill them. Especially the aged and people with compromised immune systems. Your generation (whatever generation that is) appears to have grown up in time before Global Warming, poisoning of our fish supply, DDT, radioactive energy (chernobyl for example), and contamination by chemical pesticides of our water table and reservoirs.
On a small island like puerto rico (i'm puerto rican so I am familiar with the island) it is much easier to control the ebb and flow of the water systems. My uncle works for the army corps of engineers and in the aftermath of some of your major storms on the island like Hugo there was a complete overhaul of your water systems. So maybe in your case I might agree that you can drink your municipal water. For many people however here in big cities the municipal water supply is NOT that good and people are advised to boil their water or use bottled water. Many of the water systems and reservoirs have become tainted with dangerous minerals and organizims (such as Cryptosporidium) that can be tolerated by some but not by others. These are real problems that exist today and may not have existed "back in the day" when you grew up. Many people choose not to take that risk so they just drink bottled water. The problem at hand is what do we do to adapt to this ever changing environment of ours. Changes that we have inflicted upon ourselves. I will not stop drinking bottled water but choose to find some suitable adaptation where we can minimize the impact to our environment until such time as we come up with a suitable biodegradable alternative that is mass marketed. The problem of "disposable non-biodegrable" plastic is upon us already. If we all pitch in we can at least help minimize the impact upon our environment right now. At least until a cost effective alternative comes to market.








This message was edited May 10, 2008 12:23 PM

My tap water smells like strong bleach the majority of the time. I filter it through a Pur pitcher and use that to refill a gallon jug that I have left from when I was buying gallons of distilled water. I also use it for cooking and the pets water bottles and dishes. Tap water should not smell like bleach or be cloudy.

I haven't been entirely successful with cuttings but I'm thinking of trying again. Great idea though--I know enough people at work who are bottled water junkies that I could gather what I need whenever I need it.

We recycle at work too. Separate plastic/shrink wrap area, cardboard compactor, aluminum can, plastic and cardboard trash bins in our employee breakroom--I even convinced most people to rinse the cans and bottles out so we don't attract pests.

I have a "WaterWise" home distiller, love it! What is left behind from distilling the city water where I am right now is amazing, or rather, disgusting, yellowish and smelly. I don't know how old the pipes are that come here two miles from the desal plant in town, but I know the pipes are cast iron. And whenever they dig one up, it is nasty nasty nasty looking.

I could buy Fiji water, haha. I ordered a glass of wine, and a bottle of water at lunch the other day, and the Fiji water they brought cost more!!!! Rediculous, shipping water here from Fiji.

Some groundwater has been found to have antibiotics in it, so you can't trust well water, either.

Folks jump on me saying I might be mineral deficient, but I'm a suppliment person, spending about a thousand dollars a year on my vits and minerals, and I never get sick. Did you know a large majority of Americans are seriously magnesium deficient? go google.

Americans ought to be the most healthy and long-lived people on Earth, but we sure aren't! It does cost some electricity to home distill drinking water, but, you don't have to lug bottles, and you never run out. The distiller paid for itself in nine months. Not a cheap appliance, but my most important one.

OK, off soapbox!