Reuse Plastic Bottles And Build One-Of-A-Kind Furniture With This Eco-Friendly DIY

You might get eco-guilt when you toss a plastic bottle into the recycling bin. Will the material from the container really be used to make something new? The answer to that question is unclear. However, you can remove the uncertainty by reusing plastic bottles yourself to make durable, quirky pieces of furniture. Benches, tables, stools, and chairs can all be born from plastic trash that's condensed into ecobricks.

Ecobricks are gaining attention around the world as an unexpected building material. These units are DIY from start to finish. To make one, pack an empty bottle with plastic material that's hard or impossible to recycle, like grocery bags, plastic film, styrofoam packing peanuts, and food wrappers. Don't forget the labels on the bottles themselves! Replace the cap, and you have a sturdy cell that can be used to build nearly anything. The amount of ecobricks you need will depend on the size of what you're planning to build. Hold bottles together in groups with packing tape or duct tape, silicone sealant, or strips cut from old inner tubes.Your custom furniture can show off its exposed bottles, or you can cover your creation in cloth or a combination of cement and earth. This sort of project is definitely one of the most interesting ways to repurpose plastic bottles around the house.

Gather up the plastic trash that'll fill your bottles, and give it a bath in warm, soapy water. Pack the dry wrappers and bags into your "bricks" with a long spoon handle. If you'd rather not use a spoon, you could repurpose chopsticks. You can separate the trash by appearance, and combine similarly-colored items to create multicolored bottles that have mosaic patterns. Continue packing until you can't compact the contents any further. Then, replace the cap.

Taking your stash of ecobricks from pile to piece of furniture can be overwhelming. Assembling them into larger building units, or "modules", makes it easier to begin construction. To do this, bundle a layer of bottles that are facing the same direction into shapes like triangles and hexagons. You can also create rectangular modules if you're making a piece with right angles. Single modules can sometimes stand alone as stools or side tables if your bottles are tall enough.

Adhere together your sets of bottles with tape. Or, use silicone sealant for a more reliable, permanent bond. Stacking two modules, one inverted over the other, is a Lego-esque way to build upwards. With just the right amount of finagling, you can work the bottle neck ends from one module into the gaps of another module to create a solid connection.

There are lots of things you can do with a decent supply of ecobrick modules. Stack two hexagons to create a portable seat and stitch up a cover for it from repurposed fabric scraps. To make a small table with a smooth top, start by combining your modules. Then, cut circles of cardboard the same circumference as the modules, join the circles and modules together with tape, and cover the piece with cloth.

Most ecobrick furniture pieces are better for indoor use, since UV light will gradually break down exposed plastic. One exception is if you use individual bottles as the building blocks of a cement and earth wall, in similar fashion to building a cob wall from empty jars.

Looking for a more ambitious project? Craft an armchair with a bit of wood and upholstery. Assemble two large squares of packed bottles, and affix them to a plywood base as a seat. Cut an identical piece of wood for the backrest, and use 1-inch-by-2-inch wood pieces as braces to connect the back to the seat diagonally, on both sides. Attach a layer of stuffed bottles to the backrest. Fold together a rectangular cardboard box that will cover the bottles on the top of the chair's back. Also cut a piece of thick foam for the seat. Staple pieces of fabric over the exposed elements. Have a seat and relax after all that hard work!