Thursday 15 August 2019

Experiments in Reusing Plastic Bottles for packaging screws & nails or other sharp objects

Note: of course . it would be easier to just fill the bottle up with nails / screws, tape the lid and post or store them without a cardboard box., and this is often possible if contents are ok to be visible.
However,  it may be best to hide the items from eyes in the post service, and boxes stack easy on a shelf, cylindrical bottles on their side don't .

Bottles are slow to fill with screws though a small top hole, it is better widened. If posting with  a reused bottle only , its best to use a 2L water / pop bottle as they are stronger.

 Although not ideal, we recommend for strength, the use of  fibreglass reinforced tape for strength in this case of sealing lone bottles sent through the post    

On the plus side, cardboard is recyclable. The plastic bottle inner can also be used as a screw holder to take to the job in hand and will not get soggy in the rain like a card box if used outside

Taped lid plastic  / wax covered paper coffee cups with lids can also be used to hold screws, then inserted into the box (not pictured) though they will not be as strong as the bottles IMO

PICS 

Top - 4l milk bottle with top cut off , then top folded in to seal opening
Middle - Same as above but more top cut off (4 slits can be cut in sides at top to aid folding )
Bottom - Top cut off 2 water bottles, top then folded over .

 Contents of box  & parts cut from bottles

Parts cut from bottles (find another use ? )

 1/2 kg of screws will fit in 2 water bottles in box & 1/4 kg of screws pack will fit within 1 bottle
(screws not shown) 





For sharper / heavier contents, a second bottle base sleeve on the other end is used 4L & 2 L shown



Close up


In box



"""



Contents shown apart 


2 Litre water bottles, cut almost in half, then inserted inside each other.
Plastic cap is left on (not shown in pic)  


 For a slightly smaller box. the bottle is cut almost in half, then cut again around the bottom of the opening stem.
A plastic coffee cup lid is placed inside the cut open top to stop screws falling out inside the box


Alternatives 
A pop bottlte cut in half,
one fitted inside the other
drill or use a hole punch to make 2 holes in the side
 Tie 2 used straws together, then thread though holes and tie straw ends together  


 Instead of tying together, straws can be trapped by lid screw thread




If there is concern of  straw pulling through the holes, the top edge of the bottle can be folded over &
holes drilled through 2 layers  



Sunday 11 August 2019

Maximising Cardboard box use by Subdivision & Combining with Reused Plastic Windows to see Screws Inside

Following on from our other idea :

 Ideas for Reusing Packaging Bottles & Cartons for Re-packing or posting Sorted screws & fixings

 We have bought at very low cost, 2500 new small single wall cardboard boxes & are experimenting to pack screws in different sizes / weights.
We have been offered several thousand more boxes, which we will offer for sale for 8p each if there is demand


Maximising Cardboard box use by Subdivision into smaller boxes & Combining with Reused Plastic Windows to see Screws Inside


 First attempts at resizing to 500 g  & 250g size boxes, an extra cardboard or plastic bottle
 panel is inserted into top , then taped

a sample screw is taped under tape to show contents . Usually a label showing weight / size is attached to end

If the lid is transparent, a screw is not taped on lid

Simplest is to cut box in half & use 1 half as lid like a traditional screw box (on left) .



 Alternative view
 Box  cut into 2 (lid cut slightly smaller than base to avoid lid touching shelf ) to form lid & base, with one fitting over the other (slight corner pich needed to make base smaller than lid to fit

 Range of boxes used inc reused cleaned plastic ice cream containers

 Side view

 opaque lids from 2 L milk bottles, so screws can be seen inside 


 Close up



Reused carpet card tubes are used to store heavier weights of screws .
(New) A reused plastic cup lid is placed inside the tube, to protect the card end
 from  sharp screw end punturing them/   

Wednesday 7 August 2019

Cabinz CIC donates 400+ bottles of golden syrup, Flour & Angel Delight to 4 North West UK Food Banks & a Chester Homeless Shelter

Cabinz CIC volunteers operates an informal material exchange locally, where we find homes for items we are offered that may be over stocked, unwanted or from a part damaged pallet .

4 Food Banks were supplied last week.




Idea for making an insulative "plant & soil filled bottle core plastic brick" from an empty jar, beer bottle surrounded by waste plastic melted into a brick shape in a solar oven

Idea for making an insulative "plant & soil filled bottle core plastic brick" from an empty jar, beer bottle surrounded by waste plastic melted into a brick shape in a solar oven

This is a combination of 2 previous ideas below.

The bottle will be filled with soil & seed for plants to grow out of the neck of the bottle through gaps int side of the brick to flower and cover / insualte the wall with foliage.

Alternatively the preciousplastic.com plastic injection method could be used
 https://preciousplastic.com/en/machines.html

Idea for making an insulative "vacuum core brick" from an evacuated jar, beer or wine bottle surrounded by a clay or waste plastic brick 

https://cabinznet.blogspot.com/2018/10/idea-for-making-insulative-vacuum-core.html

Idea for Turning Infinity Bakery Solar Oven Prototype into Solar Reflective Heated Folding Shelter  

https://cabinznet.blogspot.com/2016/08/idea-for-turning-infinity-bakery-solar.html

over 3 tonnes of new wood delivered 240 miles to Aldingbourne Trust Charity in Sussex from LOCATE and DONATE as part of our local Material Exchange run by Cabinz cic

 Several van loads of treated wood from a fencing co in the Wirral were delivered over summer 2024 at our own expense to  aldingbourne trus...