Upcycled Projects, Yard and Garden

Garden Paving Stone Upcycled From Shampoo and Milk Bottles

Melting HDPE Plastic

Lately I have been a little obsessed with melting HDPE plastic. You know all those bottles that have a number 2 recycling logo. Some folks have made some pretty interesting projects from the stuff.  Since it is so sturdy and hard it can be cut and carved like wood.

But I was looking for a simpler project, one that wouldn’t take a lot of cutting and sanding. I also don’t have a wooden form to compress the plastic in so I had to improvise.

For my first experiment I used a green shampoo bottle, a blue milk bottle cap and a tuna can.

I melted the cut up pieces of the bottle right in the can in the oven at 350 F and then put the lid back in the can and pressed the can into the plastic using some clamps.

Melting HDPE Plastic

Melting HDPE PlasticMelting HDPE Plastic

When it had cooled it looked like this.

Melting HDPE Plastic

And I couldn’t get it out of the can without cutting up the can.

Melting HDPE Plastic

So I had this sort of interesting plastic thing that was totally useless.

Melting HDPE Plastic

 

But it gave me an idea.

 

Happy Upcycling,