Easy but very effective tin can candle holder for any event, they would be stunning on Valentines day or to use on World AIDS day.
What a colourful way to create beautifully upcycled fridge magnets! In this craft we used recycled bottle tops to make fridge magnet bugs.
There are a lot of different things to be done with empty tins, big or small, round or flat. Here I recycled a coffee tin to create a CD holder for my desk.
What a useful way to store all your little goodies. Instead of buying new, rather upcycle what you already have.
This is not as very easy project as it requires the use of power tools as well as physical effort to panel beat the drum into the required shape. Though you can purchase plastic versions of this concept but we prefer to try use waste products to make our vertical garden.
A great way to start off the summer is to make a few stunning bird houses for your garden using old tin cans and broken crockery
This is a fantastic way to recycle old bottle tops. Upcycle them into stunning resin decorations or fridge magnets with a handmade difference. Great for the fridge!
Finally, a creative way to upcycle tin cans! Learn how to create fantastic, recycled jewellery for you and your friends by following our easy step by step instructions.
This beautiful storage container was made by recycling an old coffee tin and giving it a new lease on life, a perfect storage container!
A lot of discussion and thought goes into the recycling of bottles, be they plastic or glass, but when it comes to their tiny partners, very few people seem to give caps and lids a moment's notice. Many recycling companies recommend that when we toss our plastic or glass containers into their recycling bins, we remove the caps. And the irony is that we are being better earth-friendly recyclers by following their instructions.
Both metal and plastic caps pose several problems when mixed with their partnering bottles. They can potentially jam the machinery used in recycling. In addition, they are both technically made from different materials and so will contaminate the whole batch. With metal caps, this issue is more obvious but with plastic, less so. Plastic lids are made with a different type of plastic than their compatriot partners and so they have a different melting point. Because of this, the two recycled plastic types do not blend together smoothly when heated and so the whole batch has to be rejected.
If we were to toss the bottles and their caps into the bins, the amount and cost of man power required to weed out the small caps is often a huge deterrent to recycling companies. Which is a pity as plastic and metal caps can be recycled.
Several helpful suggestions have been made with regards to recycling metal bottle caps. For example, you can collect them in a tin can and seal the can shut as tightly as possible before dumping them in the metal-recycling bin. This way, the entire package gets melted down and recycled in one go and the danger of errant caps jamming machinery is lessened.
There are also many creative and fun ways to recycle and reuse metal bottle caps. The malleability and durability of metal caps makes them awesome media to work with when exploring your creative side. You can make magnets, interesting and colourful tabletops, fishing lures, jewelry, belts and game pieces, to name a few fun and innovative ideas.
There are many excellent reasons to repurpose metal bottle caps. The amount and type of pollution spawned due to metal production is frightening. Spent metalworking fluids, acid and/or alkaline wastes, halogenated and nonhalogenated solvents, abrasives and toxic process solutions are all examples of harmful by-products of metal production. And apart from those pollutants and their detrimental effects on the environment, many animals such as fish and birds eat plastic as well as metal caps by mistake. A scary fact is that according to the `Sea Studios Foundation', plastic waste, such as plastic bottle caps, can accumulate in certain areas of our seas to a point where plastic to sea life ratios are 6:1!!!
Each of us needs to make a concerted effort in recycling both metal and plastic products. And this is especially the case when it comes to the less noticeable culprits like caps and lids. An artist can spy out a creative and inspirational opportunity out of something as innocuous as that Heineken bottle cap we toss into the bin!