How To Reuse Plastic In Your Garden: 9 Clever Ways To Keep Waste Out Of The Landfill

There have been stories in the news lately throwing into question how much of the plastic tossed into recycling bins is actually recycled. You can hedge your bets by learning ways to reuse plastic in your garden since repurposing is another form of recycling.

Ways to Reuse Plastic in the Garden

There are an infinite number of ways you can reuse plastic products in your garden if you get creative. But to get you started with the reuse of plastic, here are nine of our favorites.

1. Turn an old tote into a greenhouse

Do you have any of those clear plastic tote boxes with lids sitting around the house? If they have already served their storage function – or if you are ready to give up on the idea of better organization – make that old plastic tote a greenhouse for seed starting. Line the crate with seedling pots or potting trays and place in the yard. Open the lid a crack to allow for airflow.

2. Save on soil with recycled pot fillers

Big planters make a real statement in your living room or on your patio. But filling the large pots takes a lot of expensive potting soil that the plant’s roots probably won’t use. Instead, recycle plastic objects into pot filler materials by placing them at the bottom of your pot or planter. I save my plastic peanuts for this, but any plastic or Styrofoam scraps do just fine.

3. Start seeds sustainably

Many restaurants still use Styrofoam cups and cartons for take-outs, made to be used and tossed- where they take hundreds of years to decompose. But stop! If you are planning on starting seeds for the garden, these make perfect DIY seed-starting pots. Just poke holes in the bottom of the cup, add potting soil, and off you go. That’s just one of many ways to reuse plastic containers.

4. Protect plants with bubble wrap

Bubble wrap is often used to protect fragile items during a move or shipment. But you can also use bubble wrap in the garden to protect outdoor plants. Instead of going through all the trouble of wrapping a shrub or perennial in a chicken wire frame, and then stuff it with dried leaves, just use that leftover bubble wrap. Surrounding a container plant or a small shrub, it provides easy-do winter protection. Just wrap, then secure with garden twine.

5. Let old water bottles water your plants

Drip or soaker hose irrigation delivers water slowly to the root area of your plants. But a plastic water bottle irrigator can take that role as well. One way to do this is to poke holes in the bottom of the bottle, then “plant” them in the soil with their neck above the soil line. Fill the bottle with water and let gravity do the rest.

6. Give herbs an early start

Fresh herbs add so much flavor to homemade cooling, but they can cost a lot in the grocery store. Utilize a DIY milk carton planter to grow herbs in your windowsill. Once all the milk is gone, these cartons are destined to be tossed or recycled so why not give them another life? You can use the bottom half of the container or slice the entire carton in half lengthwise to get more seeding space. Don’t forget to poke drainage holes – a large nail works well.

7. Feed the birds

Most of us have more than a few plastic bottles in the refrigerator and even more in line for the recycling bin. Grab a few out of the bin to make a soda bottle bird feeder for wild birds. It’s another great way to repurpose these bottles. Essentially, you make holes in the bottom of the bottle and push some twine through to hang the feeder. Then cut holes near the cap to insert the perches, then holes above the perches to make the seed available. Fill it with seed and hang it upside down in a garden tree.

8. Start seeds in single-use coffee pods

Another idea is to turn those pesky, used coffee pods that seem to proliferate in your kitchen every morning into coffee pod planters for seed starting. The single-use pods are just the right size for sprouting seeds, and your coffee maker has already punched holes into them that can serve as drainage holes. They also work well for rooting small cuttings.

9. Move plants without the mess

Moving is hard enough – just trying to get the things boxed up and ready to transport. But when you’d like to take household plants with you too, it can be truly challenging. Think water everywhere, broken containers, and soil tipped out – not a good scenario for you or the plants. Sometimes the simplest solution is the best: use leftover plastic bags to move plants. If you’re like me, you have a stash of them just in case they come in handy. Place multiple bagged plants in a cardboard box, with lots of empty bags between them to keep them standing. For bigger plants, use plastic garbage sacks.