7 Ideas for Reusing Food Containers

Posted on 06/10/2015

7 Ways to Reuse Old Food Containers

Food containers are something you buy almost every day. Whether it was a plastic box from your takeaway food, or a jar full of jam, or a box of ice cream, or even a box of peanuts for beer snacks, you are always bringing into your home more and more items that eventually turn into waste for disposal. But wait! Before making a heap and calling the rubbish removal services, think about how you can reuse these containers so that it doesn’t turn out that you bought them for no purpose whatsoever. Throwing away all these containers can be a huge waste, especially considering how many things you can use them for even after you take out their original contents. Are you dubious on the matter? Here are some examples:

1. Vases / Plant pots

Depending on the type of the container, the harder ones can be excellent vases or pots for your flowers or plants. A big box of Pringles, for example, can be placed into a cut plastic bottle and filled with water to serve as a colourful vase. A plastic ice cream box can be filled with soil and you can start planting away – just remember to make a few holes at the bottom for drainage; you don’t want to drown your plant, right?


2. Toy buckets

If your kid likes leaving toys all around the house, you can find a quick solution to that problem with a single big ice cream box where you can store all the smaller items, like the Lego bits you keep stepping on.


3. Spice / Herb boxes

If you need space savers or want to remove the spices from the annoying plastic bags they sell them in stores, then small boxes like those peanuts come in are perfect for you. Fill it up with the herbs or spices, label it so that you keep track of what you put there and add it to the shelf. Or, if you choose, you can even grow fresh herbs in an old food container.


4. Organisers

If you have too many pens and pencils and not enough space for them on your desk and you keep heaping them together, then take an empty can or a jar or a small Pringles box and fill it up with them. Do the same with another box and your rulers or measurement tools. Go to the kitchen, stop cluttering your drawers and start using jars and boxes as organisers for your utensils.


5. Craft containers

Are you fond of the arts, and are an artist yourself? Well, food containers can be a perfect spot for your paint tubes, brushes, pencils, needles, threads, etc. Don’t immediately think rubbish removal for the smaller boxes as you can actually use them to spill and mix paint inside.


6. Leftover food containers

“Once a food container, always a food container” – this can be your motto as you reuse the boxes for their original purpose. Whenever you are done with a meal and there are leftovers which you do not consider worthy of waste removal, then you can return it to a box, shut the lid and store on a shelf or in your fridge until you get hungry later.


7. Food bowls for pets

Your pet can benefit from a seemingly useless food container as well. It can actually continue to be a food container when you use it as a bowl and present it to your dog or cat. You can even cut smaller bottles and make a bird feeder as well.


Next time you endeavour in house clearance and end up with a pile of food containers, stop right there. Waste removal is not always the answer, not while you can still find use for all those items – not all of them are rubbish.