Resource Center
How to Repurpose Glass Bottles into DIY Holiday Gifts
With the holidays approaching, many are thinking about affordable gift-giving and decorating. We asked the Crafty Chica to turn glass beverage containers into beautiful drinking glasses or painted vases. It’s a nice way to repurpose household glass if your community does not accept it in residential recycling.Byline: BTB Editor
November 23, 2023 / Time to read: 4 minutesGuest blog by
If you’re wondering how to give affordable, environmentally friendly gifts this year, you’re not alone.
As the holidays approach,
Why Repurpose Glass Bottles?
According to the EPA, only about 30% of glass is recycled. While recycled glass can be remade into new glass bottles and jars, fiberglass and countertops, glass is not recyclable in all areas. That’s one reason to reuse as much as possible. If you have empty glass bottles of wine, sparkling water or juice, and if you can’t recycle them in your community, you can definitely reuse them.
Repurposing items is a great way to teach kids about the value of recycling and give items a second life. You can find tons of information about how to recycle correctly at RecyclingSimplified.com, as well as activities that can be enjoyed by the whole family.
DIY Drinking Glasses and Painted Vases
The holidays are approaching, and everyone is looking for simple, affordable gift-giving and decorating ideas. In that spirit, I turned our glass containers into beautiful drinking glasses and painted vases.
Supplies for Vase-Making
● Bottle-cutting kit
● Mask for sanding
● Glass bottles, rinsed with labels removed
● Craft paint, brushes and varnish
● Boiling water
● Bucket of ice water
Choose a Bottle
Think about what you want to use the cut bottles for — drinking glasses or vases? Then choose your bottle based on its style and color.
Style of the Bottle
Wine bottles are generally wider and bigger, so they make perfect vases. Carbonated drink or beer bottles make fun little glasses or smaller vases.
I went with the latter because I knew I wanted to paint them. I also wanted to give them as gifts to my family members. Even if we can’t celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas together, I can send them a finished painted vase to use as decor.
Color of the Glass
There are so many colorful glass bottles out there; it’s only a matter of choosing the style you want. I wanted either cobalt blue or green, so I went with the Topo Chico sparkling water glass bottles in grapefruit flavor. Perfect for bottle cutting.Glass Cutting
The next step is to learn how to cut bottles into glasses. Cutting bottles is much easier than you think.
This technique requires adult supervision because it involves hot water and cutting glass. If you have kids, I suggest you ask them to help clean the bottles, wear gloves to sand the edges, and of course paint the cut bottles.
Watch this one-minute
Get Creative
Now, you can leave the bottle as is or paint it like I did. I used glass paint and freeform painted flowers. If you paint them, I suggest starting with white as a base because it really makes the colors pop
Reuse and Recycle Glass Bottles
Thank you for checking out my post, and I hope you’re motivated to reuse and recycle while keeping in mind these three simple steps:
1. Know what to throw. Learn more about
2. Empty. Clean. Dry.™ That’s what each item should be before you place it in the recycling bin.
3. Don’t bag it! This slows down sorting production and the bag will not be opened because the plastic is not recyclable.
