You don't need expensive pots and planters to cultivate a beautiful and unique garden. In fact, you can use items found in your kitchen or recycling bin.
One homeowner recently shared a photo on the r/upcycling subreddit, revealing they did just that to make their garden and backyard even more brew-tiful.
Instead of purchasing new planters, the gardener said they repurposed left-over tea tins that were no longer being used.
"I've held onto these tea tins for years," the gardener said. "Finally decided to drill some holes in them and make small planters. They're so beautiful!"
In the post, four colorful tea tins are attached to a wooden fence with sprouting flora peaking out.
Recycling and reusing aluminum objects like tea tins for other household projects can save hundreds of millions of dollars. Experts say that by recycling this material, homeowners are saving 95% of the energy needed to make new aluminum.
This can result in savings of up to $800 million annually for a country like the United States, according to the Aluminum Association.
Repurposing these items also helps reduce individual and collective waste, cutting down on air pollutants from landfills. It also helps decrease the amount of pollution related to producing new tins, cans, and other aluminum-made products.
If you are looking to recycle such items in your home, it can be difficult to know what bins the items should be placed in. The Cool Down previously reported on how Recycle Check, a program by the Recycling Partnership, is partnering with major brands to put QR codes on packaging to simplify the recycling process.
It is important to remember that you don't always need to recycle these products to help the environment. Choosing to repurpose items like tea tins as planters saves homeowners cash that would go towards new items, as well as reduces the waste that would be involved in manufacturing and shipping the product.
Other aspiring gardeners raved over the tea tin trick, with one Reddit user saying, "This is brilliant."
Tea tins aren't the only household objects that can be turned into planters, another user pointed out.
"This gives me so many memories, my best friends Mom did this along with old boots/shoes, an old bathtub, and anything she could drill holes into really," the user said. "Such an awesome idea!"
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