Earth Day: Liquor Bottle Crafts to Reduce your Carbon Footprint

Everyone should be treating Mother Earth well.  But for the liquor enthusiast, it is a necessity. The green goddess provides all the ingredients for your favorite alcoholic beverages.And she also gives you a comfortable environment to enjoy them in. Now, it is time to give back and make sure that the earth is as healthy as it can be. From tips to reduce your carbon footprint to fun liquor bottle crafts, we highlight a few ways to treat Mother Earth right. Let’s keep her churning out all the best ingredients for the spirits we know and love.

 

1. Be Aware of Your Impact

Knowing how to help Mother Earth starts with knowing your own impact. Being aware of your own carbon footprint allows you to take necessary steps to reduce it.

What is a carbon footprint? Great question.

A person’s carbon footprint is the amount of greenhouse gases that are emitted into the atmosphere because of their actions. These gases, like carbon dioxide and other carbon compounds, build up in Earth’s atmosphere and change the planet’s climate. This leads to extreme environmental changes across the globe.

Global temperatures are on the rise – some scientists forecast a two degree rise in global temperatures by 2050. The earth could see rising ocean levels and an increase in extreme weather events (like hurricanes and droughts). These and other phenomena will wreak havoc on populations across the world.

Reducing your carbon footprint can help keep the rising temperatures from getting out of control. An average person in the United States generates 16 tons of carbon, much more than the global average of 2 tonsDo you live in the United States?Then you have the highest potential to positively impact the environment by reducing your carbon footprint. First things first, know your carbon footprint. Use a carbon footprint calculator and take steps to reduce the number.

 

2. Reduce Your Footprint

Reducing your carbon footprint is the best way to take care of Mother Earth. Make small changes like Drive less by biking, ride sharing, using public transportation and carpooling. Recycling or reusing plastic will chip away at your footprint and give the earth time to breathe. You can also use carbon offsets to pay down your footprint.

If you are on a mission to lower your carbon footprint, learn the four R’s: refuse, reuse, rot, and recycle. Here’s how you do each.

Refuse

Single-use plastic and paper products are the devil to environmental conservation efforts. Plastics are not biodegradable. They only break down into increasingly smaller pieces instead of decomposing. Because of this, plastics release toxic chemicals that damage the surrounding ecosystem.

The best way to reduce your carbon footprint is to refuse to use single-use plastics and paper products. Find recyclable or eco-friendly products to use instead.

Reuse

In an ideal world, there would be no single-use plastics. However, we do not live in an ideal world. Knowing this, make an effort to reuse your single-use plastic and paper products whenever possible. Refill that plastic soda bottle or transform that empty liquor bottle into your next craft project.

Whatever you do, make sure to reuse your single-use products.

Rot

If you don’t know what composting is, strap in. Reducing your carbon footprint goes beyond reusing and recycling plastics.You can even put your food scraps to work for Mother Earth as well. Set up a composting system in your backyard and let that organic matter decompose your carbon footprint.

Recycle

One of the sure-fire ways to reduce your carbon footprint is to properly recycle anything you can: plastic, paper, glass, and metal can all be recycled. Research your state’s recycling laws and start separating out your waste.

With the four R’s, you will quickly reduce your carbon footprint and help Mother Earth look and feel great.

 

3. Help Your Community Reduce its Footprint

Now that you know how to reduce your individual carbon footprint, you can help others in your community reduce their footprint as well.

One of the best ways to help reduce your community’s carbon footprint is to volunteer to clean up litter around you. Not only will this keep your neighborhood clean, but you can recycle the waste left on the side of the road by others.

If you are willing and able, there are great resources out there to help get you started. Even digital applications like Litterati and Rubbish were made to give you an idea of the highest impacted areas in your community. For example, the earth-cleaning app Litterati allows you to take pictures of litter and geotag the location. This helps cities manage waste better and convince companies to take part in green initiatives. Likewise, Rubbish allows individuals to track trash and litter to help others clean up the area without having to clean it themselves.

Take to the streets and start hunting down that litter. Your community will thank you for it.

 

4. Get Green with Liquor Bottle Crafts

For the spirits enthusiast, we know that those glass bottles can pile up. Looking for some fun ways to reduce your trash and reuse some of your old liquor bottles? Here are a few ways to upcycle them into something useful.

Salt and Pepper Shakers

If you have used mini bottles, this is the perfect craft project for you. 

You will need:
  • 2 empty mini-bottles
  • 2 plastic bottle caps
  • Funnel (optional)
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • 1/16” drill bit and drill
Instructions:
  1. Drill holes in the bottle caps. There can be as many holes as you want but we suggest eight for each cap.
  2. Using the funnel, fill the bottles with salt and pepper.
  3. Fit the bottle caps onto the filled bottles.

As easy as that, you have repurposed mini bottles in an eco-friendly and stylish way. These would also make great gifts and pair well with any of Prestige Haus’s custom engraved gifts for your next celebration. 

Tiki Torch

Keep the bugs away and Mother Earth healthy with this craft project for the spirits (or wine) lover who has extra used bottles.

You will need:
  • 1/2” X 3/8” copper reducing connector
  • Tiki replacement wick
  • Recycled glass wine or liquor bottle
  • Citronella torch fuel
Instructions:
  1. Wash the glass bottle and dry.
  2. Using a funnel, fill the bottle with the torch fuel.
  3. Fit the copper coupling to the opening of the bottle.
  4. Insert the wick into the opening of the connector.
  5. When ready, light the wick.

This fun liquor bottle craft will light the way to a greener, more sustainable use for those empty glass bottles.

DIY Liquor Bottle Lamps

Don’t just turn your empty bottles into an outside light source – you can turn them into a lamp for inside as well. With this guide, you can upcycle those liquor bottles and transform them into a desk lamp for your home.

You will need:
  • Gloves
  • Eye protection
  • Recycled 70cl/1 liter glass bottle
  • 10/12 mm rubber grommet
  • Wine bottle stopper/optic seal
  • 10mm threaded tubing
  • Electric drill
  • Dual/tri-core electrical wire
  • Lamp fitting and shade of your choice
  • Tweezers
  • Screwdriver
  • WD-40
  • Duct Tape
  • Freezer/grease proof paper
  • 5 mm and 12 mm drill bit
Instructions:
  1. Rinse and dry your bottle.
  2. Cut squares from the freezer paper and tape them down around the bottle to protect the label.
  3. On the side of the bottle you want as the back, measure halfway between each side and mark it. This will be where the wire comes through the hole, so make sure to leave enough space between the mark and the base of the bottle. If the hole is too close to the bottom, the bottle may shatter while drilling.
  4. Drill a hole on the mark using the 5mm bit. After 30 seconds of drilling, dust will collect. Take the label and tape away, and if you see the beginnings of a drill hole, take the bottle to the kitchen sink.
  5. At the sink, run water over the started drill hole. You will keep running water over it as you drill to lubricate the bit and prevent cracking from occurring.
  6. With the 5mm bit, drill as close to vertical as possible, making sure to not put pressure on the drill. The weight of the drill itself will do the work and putting pressure on it will cause the glass to shatter. Drill until the bit breaks through to the interior of the bottle, usually from ten to twenty minutes.
  7. Replace the 5mm bit with a 12mm bit. With the water running, drill into the same hole carefully, making it wide enough to fit the cord through.
  8. Dry out the bottle. Clean and insert the grommet into the drilled hole.
  9. Add WD40 to the grommet opening and thread the cable into it and out the top of the bottle.
  10. Fit the lamp fitting to the wire at the top of the bottle and fit the lamp fitting to the opening.
  11. Once you insert a light bulb into the lamp fitting and place the shade over your bulb, you are done.

Not only would this go well in your bar, it would also look great with any of the personalized barware options from Prestige Haus. Saving Mother Earth never looked so good.

Soap Dispenser

Clean up your act! This quick liquor craft bottle project that will help you dispense with your used bottles.

You will need:

  • Soap dispenser pump
  • Used glass liquor, beer, or wine bottle
  • Liquid soap
Instructions:
  1. Wash the glass bottle and dry. At this step, decide if you want the labels on the bottles or taken off.  
  2. Using a funnel, fill the bottle with liquid soap. 
  3. Fit soap dispenser pump to the bottle.

Just like that, you have a recycled soap dispenser that will help save the environment.

Those are just a few things you can do to help Mother Earth on this Earth Day. For other great ideas, check out our other DIY bottle crafts.

But that’s not all you can do.

Here at Prestige Haus, we like to give back to our supporters. For every person that subscribes to our email list, we will plant a tree! Subscribe here to plant a tree in your name.

What other liquor bottle crafts can you do to upcycle your used bottles? Comment below with your favorite craft project.