Top 10 Ways to Recycle Cans

 

10. Create Your Own Herb Garden

The next time you reach for that jar of mixed herbs in the cupboard…stop! How about going to your newly created herb garden that you recently created instead? Oh you can’t as you haven’t got one have you? Well, why not create one? A prefect project for one of those lazy Sunday afternoons that usually consist of flicking through the TV channels we find you will agree.
If you have children it is also a perfect excuse to teach your child about reusing and recycling and is exactly what Mummy Blogger Angela did. With a few bare essentials such as empty tin cans, potting soil, herbs and a little imagination, not only will you create a learning and bonding experience – which is rare on its own – but you will create a mindset for your child to become more creative and green in everyday life.

9. Create Funky Can-Do Robots

Just like the herb garden above, these tin can robots are a great weekend activity for you and your kids to recreate with a hands-on approach. And again, teach your child how to make new crafts out of old things at the same time. Soon your children will see how fun recycling can actually be and they will recycle on their own.
This project is also great to test your creativity. As there are no guidelines apart from making your tin can resemble a robot, it is really up to your imagination how your final Can-Do Robots will look.
If you are a primary school teacher you should jump on this and grab it with both hands.

8. Wall Art/Storage Units

Well, when we say cans, tin cans such as baked bean tins also count. How about gathering a bunch of these usually useless tin cans, cleaning them out, spray painting them (with truck-bed liner), fixing them together and then attaching them to a wall to create a twist on modern day art? Pretty cool, huh?
New Yorker, Harry Allen — who built up his own design studio in 1993 — is a product designer that creates unique pieces: from rollerskate doorstops and pig banks for Areaware and is one of only three American designers working with the Italian furniture brand Skitsch. Allen, who has always been a fan of the tin can created the one-off piece as show above.

7. Make Clothes Using Can Pull Tabs

As recycling is a viable option in today’s society, more and more of you should be trying to do what you can with old items such as soda cans. But due to us being too lazy, landfills just get fuller and fuller.
Above is a poster that was used for Aveda’s environmentally friendly solution to Fashion Week in New York City. The campaign consisted of dresses that were made by using sustainable and recycled materials; one of them being a dress made entirely out of 3000 soda can tops by the designer/illustrator, Alexis Chong. Why not take a leaf out of her book and create your own clothes using soda can tops, or even try to incorporate them into your pieces of clothing?

6. Create a Solar Heater

Do you go through quite a lot of cans? Why not put them to good use and create your very own solar heater that has the potential to increase internal temperatures by 15+ degrees? There are slight variations in design, but a basic one should only take a day or so to build.
From what we have research, a solar heater created using beer/pop cans is only great for the following two scenarios: 1. In the winter sun when it’s still considered warm but an external garage isn’t. 2. If your garage is constantly in a cooler place in summer and it doesn’t receive much heat from the sun. What we are trying to get at is, if you ain’t got any sun, you ain’t getting any heat.

5. Create Beer Can Lanterns

Scented candles and oil burners are a thing of the past. What you want is your very own Beer Can Lantern, which will not only help brighten any room, but they give any room a unique ambiance.
As one wrong snip could turn your newly beloved Beer Can Lantern of Jean-Claude Van Damme into Michael Jackson, you need to be very careful when planning and creating your own. Unfortunately there are no plans to follow, but with a little research and some trial and error attempts, you should be able to create a lantern that resembles a famous person. You can however buy them already made if you feel the work involved isn’t worth it.

4. Beer Can Sofa

OK, a couch made entirely out of beer cans isn’t going to go down well with the Missus and will no doubt look out of place in the living room, but it would sure go down a treat in “that spare room” you was allocated when you first moved in. And you can build as you go a long which is the perfect excuse to have a beer.
We cannot place our hands on the original creator of this beer couch or instructions on how to made it, so sorry, it’s going to have to be a kind of “make it up as you go along” kind of project. (Maybe fill the cans with sand to help them retain their structural integrity and glue them together) However, the final version will not only make any bro-pad complete, it will earn you a well deserved beer.

3. Recycled Aluminum Pull Tabs Jewellery

Do you drink a lot of cans of pop (cans of beer)? If so the chances are you come into contact with a lot of ring pulls then. These little pieces of aluminium have other uses than opening drinks and with your help you can control their destiny. So instead of living on a tip site for eternity, they can go towards creating something unique and creative, such as jewellery.
So awaken the hippy side of you and start collecting pop pull tabs, today. And not only will your new aluminium jewellery be a great fashion statement, it’s also light as a feather, tarnish free and you could also fool your friends and say you bought the jewellery from your local clothing store and then follow them around while they try to find some.
You may be also quite surprised to learn that actress Kristen Stewart wore bracelets made out of pop tops back in 2009. If more celebrities did the same maybe we would all recycle and reuse more.

2. Stove Made Using Empty Cans

The next time you go camping with friends or you have a few friends around in the garden, why not amaze them with your very own stove made out of two empty cans? Not only do the can stoves look great, they are inexpensive and have the potential to save lives.
The video we have used explains how to make a can stove properly and shows the best way to go about making one. But you could cut corners as a lot of what the guy uses (gasket sealant) isn’t necessary to create a basic one.

1. Handmade Handbag Made of Used Coke Cans

Now the handmade handbag that is created entirely out of coke cans is only a project for you hardcore innovators out there. Cutting corners and applying a half-assed and mediocre mindset will result in your finished project suffering. And there maybe the chance of slicing your finger clean off due to poor craftsmanship.
Don’t like Coke? Don’t worry, how about creating a handmade handbag out of Fanta cans, Coke Zero cans or even Coors Light cans (now that’s an idea)? If you don’t want to go through the effort, you could always buy one which will help the environment also.
As you see, our list is pretty diverse, which means that recycling and reusing empty cans is possible, and you can’t use the excuse that there isn’t much more they can do after they serve their initial purpose. With just a little creativity you yourself can create many more uses for them than the top 10 ideas that we have listed.