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PET Bottle Purses: Put ‘em Back to Use

34 by Doug Gunzelmann on September 5, 2008

Soda Bottle Purse

Plastic bottles are an enormous contributor to landfill waste taking nearly 700 years just to begin decomposition. We posted some plastic bottle "fun facts" a few weeks ago that puts their rampant use in perspective, such as 80% of plastic bottles aren't recycled.

Well this little guy was upcycled from two typical 20oz soda bottles. Here's how:

  1. Cut the bottom portion off of your plastic bottle with a box cutter, and use fine-grain sand paper to smooth the rough edges.
  2. Stitch or hot glue of a zipper between two cut bottle bottoms.

This could be a hip green change purse, make up kit, condom case, or a carrier for all your psychiatric medication! Some variations include cutting a bottle lengthwise to create a clutch purse. Along those lines you could find a two liter bottles and make a larger pocket book. A simple DIY and sure to spark some conversation.

via Superuse

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About the Author:

Doug is in perpetual motion and a self-proclaimed adventure junkie, that has had a longtime love affair with the great outdoors.

“I love being a part of the active world. The stuff that blows my hair back is adventure (all shapes and sizes), photography, mountaineering, Muay Thai, and seeing natural beauty in all its forms. The living earth is the framework on which I build my life and free time. My ideal trip would be BASE jumping at Sotano de Las Golandrinas in Mexico (closest I could come to skydiving through the jungle!). I work towards keeping it real, green, and healthy. ”

Doug is the co-founder of LiveOAK, although he says he didn’t know what a blog was until a couple months after he started.

Twitter Follow Doug Gunzelmann on Twitter: @amazonpilgrim
  • bimla

    what a brillient idea to reuse the waste bottle.imyself use these bottles for growing indoor plants, after cutting the upper part of the bottles by hot knief.Again i use them by pouring waste leftover hot candle wax, i insert a thred in between the bottle with wax, then iuse to cut the bottle with hot knief,this makes a beautiful candle of bottle shape.

  • http://blog.theurbanrebellion.com Sarah

    I *love* this! Not many ‘reuse’ projects have been very inspiring, but this is awesome!

  • http://www.bestchoicehosting.net Hosting Reviews

    That is actually pretty clever. A little clunky but what woman’s purse isn’t I guess.

  • http://www.2getitnow.com tommy

    If you could automate the zipper application this could go many places. Especially with multiple bottles. Great idea. Thanks for posting.

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  • Suzanne

    I knit and crochet and I know many people who use cleaned soda bottles for yarn caddies. They cut off the top of a bottle, put a skein of yarn inside, run the yarn through the neck and put the top back on the bottom. The zipper addition would be a great idea for keeping the top and bottom together. I may make a few for friends.

    They smaller version would be great little keepers for needle arts supplies.

    I was wondering if, rather than sewing the zipper to the inside of the seam, if it could be cemented to the outside. Since most zippers have nylon fabric, I think a good cement for plastics should work.

    They would even be a neat way to store supplies in the trunk of the car since the bottle would take a good amount of banging around. Done with a separating zipper, the top could even be used as an emergency funnel.

  • Karebear

    so cool. i totally want to buy this as a gift!

  • Rebekah

    What website can you order these off of?

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  • Dale Kaup

    I reuse soda bottles for coffee/milk/sugar slushies in the summer time. Just leave some space to shake it as it thaws…it’s pretty fantastic.

    In the winter they are microwaveable for hot coffee..reuse each one 100 times or more.

    • green queen

      caution frozen plastic leaches toxins into our food and h2o in most cases as well as anything microwaved. may cause cancer.
      more info @ mercola.com

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  • http://jenaardell.com Jena Ardell

    What a great idea!! The zipper needs to be reinforced somehow I bet…

    Anyone try this yet?!

    • kandy

      this idea is just the best i love this idea i would keep a lot of stuff in there i would want one for my self

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  • esarina

    Cool! The first thing that comes to my mind is that this kind of purse would be perfect for keeping a fruit protected in your bag! I’ll have to make myself one.

  • http://www.riotyarn.wordpress.com riotyarn

    plastic is truely fantastic!

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  • Mariale

    me encanta esta idea q tuvieron completamente original y es una forma de ayudar a nuestro planeta los felicito yo la voy a poner en practica… :-)

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  • http://link Red68

    I must have heard at least a hundred times. ,

  • http://google Obaid

    its awesome it love handmade creations plzzzz frwd me if u have more

    tc
    bye

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  • Esther Peckham

    Congratulations!! Great Idea, my question is; How do I put the zipper in those Bottle Purses ? Thanks
    Esther

  • green queen

    Lets get together with the states like Maine, Michigan etc. that charge a deposit on bottles and cans and turn them in for refunds (money 5- 10 cents per bottle). The returned items then get recycled. If all 50 states did that we would have less cluttered highways and people would want to recycle because it pay$. Also some of your local schools may collect the lids for fundraising for the entire school. As far as schools recycling related items lets get more involved with TerraCycle.net ‘s juice pouch program

    • Karlee

      That would be a wonderful idea! How would I get that started in kentucky? Not only do we have to deal worth our own trash, new yorks trash gets sent here to our land fills as well. It won’t be long til this beautiful state will be all garbage.

  • Solat

    full innovative!!

  • Terrific

    Great read seeing that I had been unsure what to do and just uncovered my own solution :-)

  • http://www.diydork.com Kevin – DIY Dork

    Ok… this is cool… and I LOVE the simplicity of how it was made. Instead of going glue-crazy… it’s beautifully drilled & sewn together. Looks nice & clean!

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  • ABI

    Hello,
    this is quite cool as a purse.
    Would I be able to use this purse idea as an example of an Upcycled product for my ICT GCSE course? It would not be published anywhere but would just be used in a project.
    Please let me know if this would be a problem.
    Thank you,
    ABI