Our readers have asked this question before: "How can we reuse those plastic pots that plants come in?" Here are 10 ideas for keeping them out of your trash bin ...
10 Uses for Plastic Plant Pots
While it's more green to start your plants from seed or a clipping, it's understandable that some people don't have the time, patience or success with this method.
ThisOldHouse has put together a collection of 10 ideas on how to reuse those pots. Here are a few from their list that stood out. Some are better than others. If you think you can do better, let us know!
- Displace Dirt in a Larger Pot: When repotting a plant, turn a plastic pot upside down in the new, larger container and add soil around it to reduce the need for potting soil.
- Protect Saw Blades: Flip seedling trays upside down and use the crevices to store saws or workshop knives so that the blades don't get damaged in storage.
- Clean Fruits and Veggies: Use as a strainer to clean dirt off the fruits and veggies from your garden.
- Lift a Paint Project Off the Ground: Use four small pots to prop up a cabinet door or piece of trim so you can paint the sides.
- Organize Cables or Electric Cords: Bundle and stash cords in upside-down pots in a garage or workroom. When cords are in use, pull the needed length through the bottom hole, enlarging it as necessary.
- Organize Hardware: Sort and store nuts, bolts, nails, and odds and ends.
- Use as a Twine Dispenser: Insert twine, in a roll or ball, and thread through a hole in the bottom.
- Sorting Spare Change: For encouraging kids to save or for saving those quarters for laundry day.
- Store Christmas Ornaments: While they'll have to be small ornaments, a seeding tray would work to keep them from being crushed.
Via ThisOldHouse.com
Comments (4)
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I'm hesitant to act on the first idea - use a plastic plant pot to displace dirt in a larger pot. If I were growing herbs, or small veggies, in that pot, I'd be concerned about chemicals in the plastic reaching into the soil, then the plant, then the edible parts.
view elmcclell's profile
I am all for re-using these pots, but FYI nowadays many of them are recyclable. I had about a million of them in my garage, more than I could ever possibly use. This spring I put most of them out for the recycling truck and away they went. Check for the symbol.
view Charlotte's profile
I like all of those ideas, except the first one. Re-planting a plant in a larger pot is to allow the plant to thrive and have more space for its roots to grow. If you're taking the old pot and putting it upside-down in with the new one... you're not actually giving the plant any new space to live in!! You're cramping its roots just in a different manner. It's not going to start feeling better this way, and efforts re-potting this way would be wasted, just to save a little potting mix.
Also, most terracotta pots have a drainage hole in the middle of the base of the pot. If you place a plant in a pot and cover its drainage hole with an upturned older plastic pot... it's definitely not going to help it feel any better, is it?
view NadyaN's profile
Ditto on the potting soil saving trick.
I see some problems with the idea of re-using these in general for something other than plant related.
They're dirty! In order to store your pristine screws and findings or pretty much anything else you are going to need to scrub these things. Lots of water wasted. Many areas of the country are in stage 4 drought.
I've found re-using, say, a screw top glass jar to hold nails nicer looking and longer lasting.
Many nurseries will take back the pots, just knock the loose dirt out. Re-using them for their original purpose is the most green of all.
view linbo's profile