DIY Recycled Plastic Bottle Bird Feeder – Make Garbage Great

I love making recycling projects with my kids. We go through a lot of plastic and cardboard. We generally take it to the recycling center but sometimes we like to make fun projects out of it. I was recently sent the Make Garbage Great: The Terracycle Family Guide to a Zero-Waste Lifestyle, which is a fantastic resource for general knowledge about certain materials, as well as a DIY book. Each chapter features a material such as metal, cardboard, or plastic. Withing the chapter it gives you a rundown about the material, different types, the history, and facts. Then it has a handful of great projects you can make with that material. 

I’m sharing one of those projects with you today. It’s super simple and you can make them with your kids. 

Plastic Bottle Bird Feeder

What you need:

• plastic bottle
• three plastic spoons
• twine
• birdseed
• marker
• hobby knife
• hot glue gun
• drill

1. Start with a clean dry bottle. Use a marker to evenly space out holes at various heights for the three spoons to go through. Mark two holes on opposite sides of the bottle for each spoon. You should end up with six mark’s total. 
2. Use your hobby knife to cut an oval hole in the bottle at the points that you marked, allowing enough space for the spoon to slip through. 
3. Slip the spoon all the way through the bottle. Be sure the hole is still big enough to birdseed to get through; if not, remove the spoon and make the hole bigger. Then slip the spoon back through and secure it into place with several dabs of hot glue. Repeat for the other two spoons. 
4. Drill a hole into the bottle cap about the same diameter at the twine.
5. Run the twine through the cap, make a thick double know on the inside to ensure the twine can’t pull through. 
6. Fill the bottle with birdseed, preferably outdoors, as some birdseed will spill through the holes while filling. 
7. Re-cap the bottle and hang it from your favorite tree or post. 

How cute and easy is that!?