I have an empty milk jug crisis! I was cleaning out my shop the other day. One particular corner had become a serious mess of piled up “stuff”. You know the kind of stuff I mean. The clutter that piles up because you have no where to dispose of it (like empty milk jugs). We burn our trash but to avoid the release of chemicals and nastiness of burning plastic we separate our trash. We recycle our random mixture of metals, tin, copper, and glass. We compost or burn our paper (we will be changing that up soon but that’s another post for another day). Plastics are our enemy though. I can’t/won’t burn them (except some thinner things like some wrappers and things of that nature), we don’t recycle them as we have nowhere that will accept household plastics within 60 miles of us, so they pile up. I end up taking bags of them to the dump over time and I really hate doing that. I know how long it takes plastic to break down and decay and the thought of how much we personally are adding to the landfill started to bother me once we started separating our trash. Picking up several trash bags at a time of nothing but heavy plastics will certainly put it in perspective for you. One of the greatest contributors to the “stuff” in my shop corner was empty milk jugs. Lots and lots of empty milk jugs. If I could find a way to at least reuse the milk jugs then my “plastics” bags would be reduced significantly. I counted them up. 114 one gallon milk jugs in all. Thankfully we are now using our own raw goat milk so the pile is no longer growing, but what to do with the cache of jugs that are still hogging the corner of my shop?
Enter Milk Jug Greenhouses
The Green Phone Booth had a guest post by Heather of The Parsimonious Princess over using plastic jugs as small greenhouses. I thought, what a perfect solution! You simply cut the milk jug in half, drill some holes for drainage, fill with soil, sow the seeds, reattach the top portion of the jug with some tape, and leave the top open for a little air circulation and watering as needed. But did I really need 114 mini-greenhouses?
Using the Jugs as a Self-Waterer in the Garden
I found a tip on Pinterest for deep root watering for your squash. Protracted Garden used the black plastic pots from the garden center for this method but as soon as I saw it I knew that the milk jugs could be adapted. By drilling or cutting a few large holes in the bottom edges of the milk jugs the exact same effect can be achieved.
Need More Ideas for Those Empty Milk Jugs?
In case you don’t find the above two uses for your empty milk jugs handy, or if you have more milk jugs than even I have and you need some additional ideas to help you repurpose your milk jugs then I found a few more handy links for you:
Here are 19 Easy Crafts Made With Recycled Materials
A different method for using them as greenhouses and as a scoop
There are so many uses for those old milk jugs so don’t just throw them away. If you start saving them now, you’ll have plenty come spring. Start using them! Have a great day and God bless.
