How to Recycle Pine Cones

Pine cones have many uses and should be recycled as often as possible. Many people look for pine cones to use in their holiday decorating and some find that pine cones are also useful in the garden. The uses are many as you can see.

Things You'll Need

• lots of pine cones

Instructions

1. 

   Make ornaments out of pine cones. Spray the cones with silver or gold glitter paint, drill a small hole into each end of the cone, string beads onto eye pins and insert the pins into each end, add a little glue to hold the pins in place and hang.

2. 

   Add pine cones to Thanksgiving or Christmas wreaths, swags, baskets and centerpieces. Again you can paint the cones or use as they are. You can either keep your creations or sell them.

3. 

   Spread the cones with peanut butter and dip the entire cone into bird seed. Hang from a tree for the birds to enjoy.

4. Package up the cones and offer them on a website such as Freecycle.org. Many people are looking for good crafting materials, especially this time of year.

5. Package up the cones in a nice package and sell them on eBay. Again people are looking for cheap crafting ideas.

6. 

   Donate your pine cones to local schools for kids to use in decorations that they give to their parents or relatives at Christmas time. You could put together a booklet for the kids to show them how to craft with pine cones. See the resource section below for crafting ideas.

7. Throw the pine cones into the bottom of your larger flower pots before planting. The cones will help with water drainage and are also more light weight than gravel so that your pots can be moved around easier. The cones will eventually decompose and become part of the soil makeup.

8. Add pine cones to bowls. Add several drops of essential oils to the cones for an instant room freshener.

Resources

• Make Stuff With Pine Cones