How to Make Recycled Paper Pots

Pots made of peat allow you to just drop seedlings into your garden and let them grow right through the pot. But why buy peat pots when you can recycle some newspaper by creating biodegradable potting plants? These environmentally safe pots break down in the soil, allowing the roots to push down and settle in the ground. All you need is a glass or jar and a newspaper. This is a quick and easy craft project and a great way to get kids gardening.

Things You'll Need

• Newspaper (black and white pages only)
• Drinking glass or jar

Instructions

1. Make sure your newspaper page is a single, black-and-white page. If your newspaper is only made of double pages, cut or tear one double page down the middle. You should not use any pages with colored ink.

2. Fold the single newspaper page in half lengthwise, and then again lengthwise, so you have a long strip of paper.

3. Lay the glass sideways on one end of the paper, but make sure that half the paper is above the rim of the glass. Only the top part of the glass is on the paper.

4. Roll the paper around the glass. About half the paper should overlap the rim of the glass.

5. Stuff the top of the paper into the open end of the glass, no need to be careful, just push it into the opening.

6. Pull the newspaper off of the glass. It should be pot-shaped, with a rather messy bottom.

7. Push the glass into the newspaper pot, bottom first. Put the pot with the glass down on a flat surface and put pressure on the glass from the top so it squashes the messy folded paper bottom flat. This will seal the bottom of your pot sufficiently to hold the soil but will open easily when the roots start to push through.

8. Pull the glass out, and you have your pot.