Prepper highlights ingenious ways to repurpose cat litter buckets: 'The possibilities are endless'

If you own a cat, you probably buy cat litter. You may even buy it in bulk. If so, you may have a few of the 5-gallon plastic buckets that some brands sell their bulk product in lying around.

Instead of throwing these buckets out, consider repurposing them.

One Reddit user's post on r/preppers shared a few ways to use these buckets.

"Toss a bag in it to make an emergency toilet, drill drainage and make a planter (I've personally grown tomatoes and peppers in them they work fine), mylar bag allow for food storage," suggested the original poster. "The possibilities are endless."

Upcycling is key to reducing the single-use plastics that wind up in landfills. About 90% of all single-use plastics are sent to landfills, and less than 10% are ever recycled. 

Sometimes, these plastics don't even reach landfills. Whether dumped on purpose or by accident, 8 million of the 400 million tons of plastic waste the world generates each year ends up in oceans.

Plastic that is disposed of can leach harmful, long-lasting chemicals into the soil and water. As it breaks down, it releases microplastics, which embed themselves into land and marine food webs and can enter humans. In fact, plastic has become so prevalent that it has been found in human brains, in placentas, in dolphins' exhaled breath, at the world's highest peaks, and in its deepest chasms.

By upcycling and recycling, you can significantly reduce plastic pollution and help protect our planet. 

Redditors admired the original poster's dedication to upcycling and suggested a few ideas of their own for reusing 5-gallon litter buckets.

What supplies do you keep on hand in case of a blackout? Just a flashlight 🔦 A few camping lanterns 😎 A full-on emergency kit 🆘 I don't have anything 🤷 Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.

"So amused that I am not the only person who repurposes them," wrote one user.

Another commented: "I use them for so much. There's one in my kitchen for scraps that go into the compost."

"I use them to store dirt and stuff for my gardens," someone else said.

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