Life Hackery

Raise your hands if you’ve played a round of Spin the Bottle in your life. Yep, thought so! After all, it’s one of the most common activities whenever a group of male and female friends gather. While you can use other things, the preferred item to use as the spinner is, obviously, the bottle, hence the name. The reasons for this are unclear, but it is most likely due to the fact that a bottle is a common item that you can just procure almost anywhere. Also, most drink glass bottles—especially the ones for carbonated drinks—are shaped in such a way that they can facilitate spinning with less friction than other kinds of bottles.

Games, however, are just one of the many uses of a used up and empty glass drink bottle. If you think that their life ends after you’ve used up all their contents, then you’ve got another thought coming. There are many things you can use an empty glass drink bottle for, and some of them are not exactly obvious at first glance. Consider these, for example:

1. Collectible items. Do you know that the Coca-Cola bottle’s shape is unique and even patented? It was deemed to be recognizable, even in the dark, and when it’s shattered. Not bad for something that’s just used as a container, eh?

Drink bottles come in all shapes and sizes, depending mostly on aesthetics and design. Since the bottle is the first thing that a consumer sees, manufacturers are careful to make sure that it is instantly recognizable, even with the labels off. So naturally, they are very good candidates for collecting.

What’s more, every country has their own local drinks, be it a soft drink or a beer. For example, a Corona beer bottle common in the United States is very different from San Miguel beer, a popular local beer in the Philippines. Both the shape and the design are reflections of their respective culture. And speaking of designs, they are as varied as anything out there. Some brands even have different designs for each country.

If people go about collecting stamps, then there’s really no reason why you can’t go around collecting empty drink bottles. They make interesting show pieces and each has the unique charm of the country it was originally made.

2. Used as a material for making houses. Yep, you heard it right. Glass drink bottles can be used as a material for making houses. And we don’t mean breaking them into little tiny pieces as wall decorations, or melting them down to make glass panes, either. We mean real, whole empty glasses!

Granted it’s mostly just an architectural design thing, but if you’ve got enough glass bottles, you can stack them one after the other on their sides and make them your house’s wall. The mouth part is usually faced outwards so you can still have a flat wall in your home. There are several good things out of this: one, there will be gaps so your home will be properly ventilated. That’s good if you’re in a place with a tropical climate. Two, if you use glass bottles with similar shapes but in different colors, the effect as the sun shines through them will just be positively lovely!

Of course, there will also be problems. If you’re living in a tropical country, be prepared for a lot of insects coming in through the gaps. Also, since glass is not as strong as concrete or wood, if someone decides to go on a stone-throwing spree, then you’d better make sure that you steer clear away from the bottle wall. If you’re living in a relatively safe area, like a village subdivision or an elite neighborhood, then you shouldn’t have any of these problems.

3. Use them as a mini-terrarium. Drink glass bottles may not be as big as a real terrarium, but if you’re just raising a colony of, say ants, then it should be enough. Just make sure that you choose a bottle made of clear glass, and whose logo is not printed to it, otherwise you’d never see your colony’s little routes. You can put your food or feeds in the bottle’s mouth. Put it somewhere where there’s ample light and ventilation and you have your own little terrarium. (More tips on how to create your own terrarium)

4. Use it as a launcher for fireworks. If you have one of those fireworks on long sticks that need to be propped upwards to launch them, then the bottle is a really good way to do it. Just put the stick in the bottle’s mouth, making sure that the wick is out of it. Light the wick, stay back, and then watch ‘em rip! The advantage this over plastic bottles is that one, glass bottles are able to support the weight of the firework and two, they don’t melt when subjected to the heat (or if the firework explodes without flying).

5. Use them as musical instruments. If you’ve ever been to elementary science, then you already know this. You can produce musical instruments by resonating columns of air. First, pick some glass bottles that make a good tone when you strike them. Six will do. Fill the first bottle with water, then the next with less water, and keep going until you get to the last one. By this time, you should just be able to fill it with about an inch or so of water. When you tap each bottle using a spoon or stick, you will notice that they produce a different tone and sound. Voila! You now have your very own musical instrument!

These are just five of the ways you can use an empty glass drink bottle. There are still others; the more creative you are, the more you can discover other uses. So don’t junk them, re-use them! Another use of glass bottle is creating picture frames, read how to make picture frames using glass bottles.