Each year, Americans throw away enough plastic to wrap around the earth about four times. You alone throw away around 185 pounds of plastic each year. That is a LOT of plastic. Since we are all going to be on this planet for quite some time, I started thinking of ways to reduce the amount of plastic waste. Plastic milk jugs make up a large amount of this waste. We can always recycle these, but why not give them some interesting new uses? I’ve come up with 10 ways to reuse plastic milk jugs instead of just tossing them in the trash.
1.    Plastic milk jugs make great pots for plants! All you need to do is remove the top of the jug and use the larger bottom portion for a potted plant.
2.    You can use milk jugs to store pens, pencils, and other supplies. You can decorate the outside of the jug with fun decorations.
3.    Milk Jugs can be used as a shovel for gardening. Cutting the bottom of the jug at an angle can create a functional shovel for a lot cheaper than going out and buying one.
4.    You can use the jugs to store other items around the house, such as socks, Legos, etc.   Just cut off the top half of the jug and fill it with whatever you need.
5.    Milk jugs can be used to make birdhouses. Cut a hole in the side and decorate the jug to look like a bird house!
6.    Milk jugs can be used as a watering can. Just puncture the lid of the jug a couple of times and fill it with water.
7.    Milk jugs also do a great job of holding paint for art projects. Cut of one side of the jug and fill the bottom of the jug with paint.
8.    Jugs can be a great irrigation system for your garden. Poke small holes in the bottom of the jug and fill it with water. Then, bury it in the dirt.
9.    Make homemade weights out of jugs! Fill the jug with sand and you’ve got a weight! (It’s also a lot cheaper than a gym membership, trust me.)
10.    Make a piggy bank out of a milk jug to store your money.
We really need to be aware of how much plastic goes into landfills and ends up corrupting our earth. I hope these fun ideas make you want to repurpose items instead of tossing them. For further reading on plastic waste and how we can manage it, read this article: http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewe … 1&hid=4210
How do you all feel about this topic?

We use a lot of plastic in our daily lives, which is something I've been trying to reduce, and we often don't do a good job with how we deal with this plastic. I really like all of your creative ideas for reusing plastic milk jugs. My family buys a lot of milk, and they often come in those plastic jugs, which I usually don't think too much about. We always recycle them but reusing them would also work well. I really like your idea about using them for irrigation. My school has a fancy drip irrigation system and I've been wanting to do that for my garden at home, but it takes a lot of money. I could just use a few plastic milk jugs instead. I also like that you included this drip irrigation idea. I live in California, which has a dry climate to begin with, but we're also in a serious drought on top of that. Drip irrigation is a great, water-conscious way to water your plants. It decreases the amount of water lost to evaporation by a huge amount, compared to using a hose or a sprinkler.
Although I love your creative ideas for reusing plastic milk jugs, I think it's better  to just avoid buying plastic milk jugs in the first place. It's easier to prevent waste than to try to deal with it once it's out in the world.

I think that's a valid conclusion. I think eliminating the problem at the source is the best way to go. I'm glad  you liked the irrigation idea! I think it would be beneficial in areas like CA where it's very dry. It allows you to use irrigation without buying an expensive system. How do you think we can get rid of milk jugs all together to be more green?

*** I meant to post this under Reuse & Repurpose. Sorry for the inconvenience!

We could try to switch over to milk cartons. Those can be recycled in specific recycling plants. As individuals, we can all stop buying plastic milk jugs and can just buy cartons. However, in order to stop the problem entirely, we would have to write to milk companies and request that they don't use plastic milk jugs.

I think that would be a good idea. It would be hard to get everyone to switch over, so we would have to stop jug production at the source. This would be, like you said, contacting companies to get the production of jugs to stop. Do you think they would agree to switch over to cartons over plastic

I think this is a great idea.  I also agree that the amount of plastic we use is insane and should be a lot lower.  I think your ideas for reusing milk jugs are super creative and very functional.  I think I will start using my left over milk jugs as watering cans!

I think that it would definitely be a challenge to completely switch over to cartons over plastic jugs. The ideas for reusing these plastic jugs were very creative. We could even use these ideas at school! We could use jugs to store pens and markers in classrooms. There are also many recycling companies that will recycle our plastic milk jugs as well as many other kinds of plastic.
Here is a link with information about recycling plastic. http://plastics.americanchemistry.com/S … /Recycling

I think there would have to be a lot of support for switching over and possibly some financial gain or increase in the production efficiency for big companies to switch from plastic jugs to milk cartons. If we could get a lot of people asking the companies to switch over then they might do it. We could also tell them that they could market it as "the more sustainable way."