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!

Sorting your trash, will help you be most successful in your recycling and composting endeavors.
You can buy all sorts of containers if it helps you to start fresh with a organizational system. I however found it more economical to use what I already had.
Here in Kannapolis we don't have curb side recycling pick up so we actually have to deliver our recyclable to the stations in town. I thought of that when I chose to re-use Rubbermaid container.
You need to be familiar with how your City requires sorting to be done.Check you city's website to see if they offer recycling, if they have curbside pick up and if they have provided containers? You may also want to double-check if hazardous household waste (like paint containers can be picked up or must go to a Hazardous waste center). Here,I have to take HW to another site but the recycling, I could just throw everything in together and sort it at the center but that is just more time-consuming.
The way that the containers are at our local center, paper is one container, Glass Plastic and metal are another container and cardboard is on its own as well. I have 3 bins here at home one for the containers at the center, so all I have to do is to load my bins in the car drive to the Recycling Center and dump my bin's contents into the containers. Each bin is labeled with a post it style note. I have set up in my kitchen the 3 recycling bins, my compost container and a small trash can.
The pre sorting only takes a second having these set up. When someone finishes the last of the juice they drop the container into the proper bin. That seems easy enough. What about food?If you read the earlier blog entry on compost you know that is pretty easy as well, especially if you have made some of the steps to economize your time.
I have a compost container on my counter and a trash can with a sealed lid - when we finish a meal or snack we simply scrap what is compost able into the bin. I dump the coffee grounds into the bin after each pot and all the egg shells and such go there too!
Why the trash can then? Unfortunately at this point there are still some things that can not compost in our Back yard compost(large-scale compost centers however can), things I wouldn't want to give the worms and that are not recycled.They are few but they have to be disposed of non the less. So I put the bones, meat scraps and things of that nature into the trash. I don't fill a trash can in a week - so I have a lid on that too. I use far less bags than I have before sorting and that has allowed me to switch to a bio plastic bag. [caption id="attachment_153" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Avaiable at www.greenlifecarolina.com"][/caption] My large container outside is only put to the street for pick up about once a month. You would be surprised how little goes to the curbside container once you remove everything that is recycled and composted from your daily waste.


Since this is a NC specific blog, I thought that I should mention it is ILLEGAL to put plastic containers into your trash containers for pick up. Becoming familiar with the change in states recycling policy can in fact save you fines.
Items Banned from Disposal in North Carolina Landfills
News14 NC Landfill Ban

Composting to improve your outdoor Life

I first learned about it via the internet through a great site called Smell Like Dirt. There are some great YouTube videos posted there, but there are tons of local resources too.I recommend watching these videos to learn the how to or attend a class- They broadcast from Charlotte. I found a link about taking a composting class, my husband and I took the class and the rest is history – we got hooked!

Composting reduces the amount of matter that goes into a landfill,according to the EPAComposting what’s the big deal right, especially if you are already recycling. Well, composting can be a huge deal for all of us.Yard trimmings and food residuals together constitute 26 percent of the U.S. municipal solid waste stream.Composting at home allows it to decompose on the surface where it can be of most use! It saves the community money and energy because it isn’t having to be hauled to the landfill. Not to mention that it isn’t taking up space in a landfill. I use way less garbage bags one 20 count box lasts 2 months or more at my house. Anything that can be put into the compost goes there.
Personally it benefits you by improving the soil quality and helping to protect against drought, because it allows your soil to keep more water. This is great for you, because you pay to put the plant life in your yard. It may be that you have a garden, or just expensive landscape.
Do you have a lawn guy in your family? Did you know that compost is the best defense for your lawn too. Adding compost to your lawn in addition to grass cycling helps the lawns root system to be able to penetrate further, making it more drought tolerant. There are obvious fertilization benefits as well, because compost is nutrient rich.
It’s expensive though, right? NO! This is one of the cheapest things you can do to help you and the environment! Most everything you will need is available FREE to you and the rest can be purchased for less than fifty dollars in most cases. It costs about $5 to produce 10 cubic feet of compost vs the $25 it would cost to buy it! You don’t need to buy anything though. The basic ingredients to a good compost already exist in your yard – you just need to put them together.
I don’t have that kind of time. The beginning process of setting up the compost site takes about forty-five minutes,after that you just have to add your scraps and turn it once a month. You can turn it more often – this will speed up the process. You will have usable compost in about 6 months!
It’s fun…. Yeah I know you are thinking… messing with used foods and dirt doesn’t sound fun. It can be especially for a family. Building a bin together to maintaining it all can give an opportunity for your family to spend time together and do something that will produce benefits within a growing season, especially if you plant a small garden using your compost. I have several coffee canisters that I add my compostable to when I am cleaning the kitchen. I take it out when I take the recycling out, and add it to the compost.
Give it a try – if it isn’t for you –well at least you attempted it!Get the basics! I believe though that once you get started and find out how simple it is you too will be hooked!!