Make skittles
You can fill probiotic drink bottles with sand or water and use them for indoor skittles, especially the brands which have a screw top on them. Enjoy the game!
Pauline Smith
Camper's friends
Strange you should mention those little probiotic yoghurt bottles as they're one thing I use a lot for camping. Fill one with washing up liquid, another with cooking oil, mixed herbs, salt/pepper - the list goes on. They're non-breakable and the tops stay on pretty well. I've also used them for shower gel - although I'm bald so not for shampoo.
Dan Aspinall, Sydney
Grow some salad
Not sure this is a particularly sensible/practical idea, although I do remember my mum saving big yoghurt pots for us to use to make yoghurt pot cress heads at school. Take a pair of old tights and wash them at a highish heat. Stuff a load of cotton wool and some cress seeds (or other seeds I guess) into the foot and tie a knot in it. Make a hole in the bottom of a large yoghurt pot and pull the end of the tights through so the knot goes through. Water it and voila: cress heads! Decorate with buttons etc to make eyes.
Natasha Lambert
Pass them on
See if your local preschool needs yoghurt pots them for 'junk modelling'.
Vicky Edge-Baron, Chelmsford
Enrich your compost heap
We reuse plastic milk bottles to collect the urine that goes on the compost heaps to speed up the process, and of course reduce the amount of water used for flushing.
Beccy Higman, Sheffield
Look after your eyes
I use probiotic drink bottles and plastic vitamin containers to put on the end of garden canes so that I don't poke my eye out. Perhaps you could pass them onto your colleagues down at the Observer allotment.
Stuart Danby (also suggested by Fran Walker)
Keep slugs at bay
I reuse coke bottles as mini seed propagators. You can see what I do on my blog. It consists of the bottom and top of a coke bottle. The top keeps the moisture in. When the seeds have sprouted I leave the top off. The middle bit of the coke bottle I use to surround young seedlings outside in the greenhouse. It gives them a fighting chance against slugs.
James Butler, County Kerry
Do it yourself
If you are planning to redecorate, empty milk containers are very useful for gloss painting. Slice around the middle of the container with a Stanley knife. This gives you a pot to clean your brushes when you've finished, or you can fill it with water to store your brushes until you need them again (this keeps the paint wet on the brush). The top of the container, when laid down with the handle uppermost, gives you a container that you can place your brush into when you need to put it down. Perching it on the edge of the tin is always hazardous as it can fall either way. The handle allows you to pick it up and move it to where you next need it.
John Barker
Bag it, don't bin it
I reuse food storage bags after washing them with a wonderful device called Bag-E-Wash. Get the best of both worlds: reduce waste by storing leftovers in air-tight food bags, then spare our landfills by reusing the bags after washing them.
Michael Bassett, Minneapolis
Shelve it
I've been making shelving and tables from glass bottles and reclaimed timber. Follow instructions for the same here.
Roy Mohan Shearer, Glasgow
Get some bling
I create glass jewellery from household bottles and jars. More information can be found on my website.
Caroline Janganant
Roll with it
I save the inside cardboard bits of toilet rolls all year, then plant beans in them. They are a great size to get beans going in a greenhouse, and then can be planted intact as they rot in the ground. This also prevents disturbing the roots of the seedlings too much. About 6-8 cardboard tubes fit very well into one of those plastic punnets you get peaches etc in from supermarkets.
Justine Dunn, The Highlands
Allot of good ideas
On the subject of reusing/recycling, I use: · yoghurt bottles as pots for growing plants
· the inside of the loo rolls as biodegradable plant pots
· wine corks on the top of bamboo canes
· large strong opaque plastic bottles, cut up into strips, as plant tags
· large water bottles, with their bottoms removed, as plant protectors
· large plastic trays to grow plants in or hold water for potted plants
· CDs to scare birds
· small plastic milk bottles as slug traps
· plastic drink cups as plant pots
· glass jars to store drying seeds and afterwards to keep them dry
· folded newspaper as biodegradable small pots ... ... and much more. My allotment site is a hive of reusing and recycling. We also grow thousands of plants every year to sell locally and raise funds for site improvements. We are currently working on improving our site's recycling facilities.
Chris Barker, Clifton Road Allotment Association
Get knitting
You only mention plastic tubs and bottles etc but old textiles can be endlessly recycled. Worn towels can be cut up to become face flannels. Worn rectangular sheets can be cut in half and the sides stitched to the middle to become tea towels and tray cloths, or - when too far gone - cleaning rags. Old cotton T-shirts make excellent window- and glass-cleaning rags. Old bits of knitting wool (knitting is back in fashion) make patchwork blankets, even clothes, including dolls clothes and baby clothes. One even more useful side-effect is that as a rheumatoid arthritis sufferer, I knit very early in the morning when I get up and watch the news. It gets the stiff old fingers going. Apart from the pleasure of having something for nothing, think of the pleasure of filling empty hours in front of the TV. Something useful to show for so many essentially wasted hours.
Eryl Baylis, France
Make your own yoghurt
Don't buy yoghurt pots in the first place! Get some kefir grains and make your own Turkish-style yogurt in large jam jars. The cost is only the price of milk and you only need buy the grains once (they are self-perpetuating). The cardboard tubes from toilet rolls, wrapped in an old scarf and secured at the ends by the rubber bands discarded by postman, makes a draught excluder. Bubble wrap makes cat litter liner - it is better than bought liners because it doesn't rip. Soap nuts for laundry are more economical than detergent and you don't need fabric softener.
Margaret Rothwell
Find more ideas
Have a look at Bottle Biology for ideas for plastic bottles.
Mrill Ingram, Wisconsin