How to Make a Basket Made From Recycled Plastic Bottles

Collect plastic bottles to eliminate trash and make new products.

When you recycle plastic bottles you can create new products out of old materials. This not only saves you money and allows you to be creative, but keeps the environment a little more eco-friendly, too. If you use recycled plastic bottles to create something new, it is important to wash the bottles out first so that they are no longer contaminated with food or beverage residue. Use household materials to use in conjunction with the plastic bottles to help construct the basket.

Things You'll Need

• Craft scissors
• Hot glue gun
• Fabric glue
• Assorted plastic bottles
• Fabric
• Paper-mache mix
• Newspaper
• Paintbrush
• Shellac
• Acrylic paint
• Hole punch
• Yarn

Instructions

Basket Bottle Quadrant

1. Cut four 1-liter plastic bottles in half with craft scissors. Take the bottoms and glue them to one another at the sides, using a hot glue gun, to create a quadrant. You now have a bottom of a basket that resembles an egg crate.

2. Cut a long strip of plastic that is 1-inch wide out of the leftover bottles that were already cut. The strip should be one and a half times the length of the quadrant, or at least 8 inches long. The strip becomes the basket's handle. Glue the ends of the strips to the bottles in the quadrant with a hot glue gun.

3. Set the quadrant basket onto a flat piece of fabric. Pour craft glue onto the fabric and bring the fabric up to cover the basket. The fabric will stay in place because of the glue.

Paper-Mache Basket

1. Slice a 3-liter plastic bottle in half with a craft knife. Shape the top rim of the plastic bottle into triangular peaks or rounded shapes that resemble clouds for a decorative look.

2. Make strips of newspapers and prepare the paper-mache mix. Cover the inside and outside of the bottom half of the plastic bottle with paper-mache materials by using your fingers to apply the newspaper. Dip the newspaper into the paper-mache mix and place directly onto the bottle.

3. Allow the paper-mache to dry for four hours. Apply shellac to the dried paper-mache, and paint over it with acrylic paint to make a colorful basket.

Long Bottle Basket

1. Cut three 1-liter plastic bottles in half. Line up the bottoms so that the structure of the basket is long.

2. Glue the three bottle bottoms together, sides touching, with a hot glue gun. Make a place for the handle to connect to the basket by hole punching two holes into the opposite sides of the basket. This is where the yarn handle will fit through.

3. Tie one end of yarn through one hole and the other end of the yarn through the other hole. Hold or hang the basket by the yarn handle.

Tips & Warnings

• You can expedite the drying time of paper-mache by placing the basket in front of a portable fan.

References

• Art Craft Ideas; How to Make a Basket Out of an Old Plastic Bottle; November 2010