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Plastic Bottles Greenhouse – How to Build It With Recycled PETs

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5772002_f520If you always wanted to have a plastic bottles greenhouse in your garden, but for one reason or another you found it too complicated or expensive to build, this project is the right one for you.

Winter is here, and together with the snow and the cold comes the worry of how to keep our lovely outdoor plants and vegetable gardens alive for these harsh few months. The answer, place them in a DIY greenhouse, which you can make of recycled plastic bottles.

It is really great, not only because it is fun to do, and you can get the whole family (or why not even the local community)  involved, but also the result is truly amazing. Once completed, which OK, might take a bit of time, I guarantee you, the level of satisfaction will be incredible.

So, let’s get cracking.

Probably the most difficult part of it all is to acquire a sufficient amount of plastic bottles, although no one says you have to drink that much soda yourself. Get the neighbors involved too, or why not even asking the owner of the local pub? For a 8′ by 6′ greenhouse you will need 1400 recycled bottles with 2 liters in volume.  In addition to that you should also have a medium, which could be long bamboo canes, or long sticks that can fit through the bottle opening. You will also need frames- that could be recycled wood, or metal pipes, or wires, anything that you can put your hands on. And this is it.

To assemble the plastic bottles greenhouse, you first need to remove all labels, then cut off the bottoms and the bottle lids. Next you need to thread the bottles through the bamboo canes, or sticks, depending on what you are using. Build up the frame and then connect all interlocked bottles to it. Here is a demo video of it.

Greenhouses made of plastic bottles are easy to make, very cheap and definitely a very elegant solution to having fresh produce from your own garden all year round. The plastic bottle greenhouse has many benefits besides minimal costs. It is self-watering, as rain water can penetrate through the gaps between the bottles, it raises the temperature by 10 degrees C, it gives you the opportunity to recycle bottles and keep them away from landfills in a very smart way, and last but not least, it is super cheap to repair if ever needed, although it is quite strong.

There are many approaches you can take here, but I decided to pick the tutorial provided by IzzyM, on HubPages. The idea is all the same, the tutorials you can find online differ only in terms of the final design of the plastic bottles greenhouse, and therefore the quantities of materials needed.

Welcome back tasty tomatoes in winter and goodbye plastic bottle pollution.

Image (c) Jessica Perry

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1 COMMENT

  1. This sounds so wonderful, but I will need at a minimum of 3000 bottles as I am making a roof for a 1050 sqft area. I need to know where I can buy empty 2 liter bottles. I have been looking on line but I must not be putting in the correct words. Any ideas on where to buy in bulk?

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