We had a blast working with 4Ocean on these waste-reducing hacks! Make a difference today: 1 bracelet = 1 pound of trash removed from the ocean and coastlines! Get your own here!

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Want to recreate our hacks and start reducing waste? Check out each hack below for a list of materials you probably already have lying around the house to reuse. Follow along with the step-by-step instructions and video!

Self Watering Plants

If you’re like me and can never remember if you watered the plants, this hack is here to help keep your plants alive!

 

Materials:

  • plastic bottles (any size you want!)
  • X-Acto knife
  • an iron
  • hot glue gun
  • pebbles
  • water
  • twine
  • soil
  • plant of your choice

Instructions:

  1. With an X-Acto knife, cut off the top of the plastic bottle, right before it starts to curve near the top.
  2. Run a hot iron over the cut edges of the bottom section of the bottle and the top section.
  3. Punch a hole through the cap of the bottle with a hot glue gun. You want it wide enough to fit some twine through.
  4. Add decorative pebbles to the bottom section of the water bottle.
  5. Pour in enough water.
  6. Thread both ends of your twine through the hole in the cap of the bottle.
  7. Place your top section of the bottle, cap down, in the bottom section.
  8. Add a few more decorative pebbles to the top section to help weigh it down.
  9. Add in a small amount of soil.
  10. Finish with adding your plant (roots and all!) of choice over the small layer of soil.

 

DIY Wine Cork Board

Put the old wine corks to good use and make them into a craft board!

Materials:

  • wine corks
  • heat source
  • water
  • tongs
  • pot
  • knife
  • frame (size of your choice!)
  • craft glue

Instructions:

  1. Throw your collected wine corks into a pot of water and let boil.
  2. Remove the corks from the water with tongs and cut them in half with a knife.
  3. Add craft glue to the back of the wine cork halves and glue them in any pattern/design you want into the frame.

 

Petal Clock Frame

Don’t throw out those plastic spoons! Put them to good use and add some unique decor to your home.

Materials:

  • plastic spoons
  • candle or some other kind of heat source
  • hammer
  • cardboard
  • push pins
  • pen
  • string
  • spray paint (color of your choice)

Instructions:

  1. Hold a plastic spoon over a candle. Let the heat melt the plastic to your liking.
  2. Break off the head of the spoon with a hammer.
  3. Repeat steps 1-2 for however many spoon heads you need.
  4. Press a push pin into the center of your cardboard piece.
  5. Tie a piece of string around your pen or pencil and then tie it to the push pin. This is your compass.
  6. Draw one circle with the compass.
  7. Untie the string on the push pin and give it some slack.
  8. Draw a circle that is wider than your first one.
  9. Cut out along your lines so you’re left with a cardboard ring.
  10. Glue the melted spoon head to the innermost part of the ring. Repeat around the inner perimeter.
  11. Repeat in as many rows as it takes to fill the cardboard ring.
  12. Spray paint the whole piece with the color of your choice.
  13. Once dry, place your clock in the center and secure the entire piece to the wall.

 

Controlled Pour Cap

No more drowning your salad in dressing!

Materials:

  • plastic bottle cap
  • lighter
  • toothpick or skewer
  • scissors

Instructions:

  1. Run a lighter over the top of the plastic bottle cap.
  2. While the plastic is still warm press a toothpick or skewer through the cap starting from the inside of it.
  3. When the plastic is cooled, cut off the tip of the “nozzle.”

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