Did you know that more than 186 Million bottles of soda and water are sold a year? Even if you recycle all the bottles there is nothing to do with those caps. Most recycling centers won't touch them due to the type of rigid plastic they are.Most are #5 and have a higher melting point than the plastic bottles that they cap.

So what's a green girl to do?

Well, start by avoiding buying those bottles to begin with! Choose a refillable bottle or cup to drink from. Chartreuse offers great options for this... the stainless steel water bottle comes in two great sizes and a number of colors.You can also use an Eco Cup or Not a paper cup, to drink from especially for things other than water.

If you find it hard to avoid buying those plastic containers, we all know about America's soda consumption problem.. then what do you do with the caps?

You have a few options:

I use them as math and color manipulative. I home school my five-year old daughter so the bottle caps are great to use to practice her counting and sorting skills. They are free so if she needs to learn to count to 1000 I can always get my hands on more! The variety of color and sizes offers re-enforcement for her color recognition as well.

Of course, if you have read any previous blogs you know my daughter is avid about doing something with anything that can't be readily recycled so I have some reuse tips for those caps too.

Here are some Craft Ideas

~Use the bottle caps as magnets. You can paint or decorate them however you want. I have cut my kids faces out of some of my scrap booking photo cast offs, glued them to the edge side of the bottle cap and then added a piece of magnet to the flat side of the cap. It is an interesting and unique addition to the fridge! If you want to be super green reuse pieces of those magnets that come on the front of the phone book vs buying magnetic strip tape.

~ Something else we have tried , is making stamps from the caps. You can use those foam shapes that you buy in the craft store and glue them to the flat part of the cap. You use it just like a regular stamp- just ink it and go! You can also cut shapes from sheets of foam(both of the foam types can be purchased at the dollar store or any craft store). A greener option is to use the corrugated cardboard that is also known to be not so recyclable. Use a cookie cutter as a template and cut a shape out of the cardboard then hot glue the bottle cap to the back of the shape for a handle on the stamp. I have also read that you can use puff paint to write a phrase in reverse and use that as a stamp, I haven't tried it though so I don't know how well it works.

~ The last craft option I have is a welcome mat! Using cloths line, I poked holes in the corresponding sides of the bottle caps pushed the line through and I strung together enough bottle caps to make a standard sized mat. I have also tried a non toxic spray adhesive and the foam drawl liner/rug no slip mat thingy. (available at the dollar store). You just unroll the product, (I would do this outside) spray the adhesive and then arrange the bottle caps on the mat flat side down. It works well but it isn't as durable as the first option you will have to make occasional repairs! I have seen a few instructions where you nail or screw the bottle caps to a piece of ply wood... I haven't tried so I would be interested as to how well it works.

~ You can use the above option on a smaller scale and make coasters. or even place mats.

One thing I haven't tried is a wall mural but when I ran across this article when I was researching this article I had to share this,Michelle Stitzlein is an artist who does sculptures, wall art murals and teaches lectures all about art with bottle caps! Take a look at the photos they are amazing! I guarantee they will inspire you!

Lastly - if you just aren't into the craft thing... then you can send-off your caps to be recycled. Aveda a cosmetics company in Blaine Minnesota, offers you an opportunity to send them your bottle caps for recycling, into new packaging for their products. You can also have a local school or charity sign up and get some cash for your efforts.

No matter what you do , do with your caps I hope you don't just chuck them in the trash!
They are obviously not bio degradable and a lot of wild life find them a consume them resulting in death.

If you try any of these projects or have any ideas of your own - leave a comment and tell me about it, I would love to know how the ideas turned out!