Plastic Earrings from Recycled Milk Bottles

Making jewellery from recycled stuff is really popular at the moment and I can see why. These cute plastic earrings are cheap, look beautiful and no one would ever guess that they were made from old milk bottles!

I have been interested in having a go at making some of my own jewellery for a few years now but it was only recently that I gave it a try. In particular I wanted to make some of my own earrings because I tend to wear earrings more than necklaces, bracelets, or rings. I like earrings that are casual and cute, stuff that you can wear during the day when you are going to work or to the shops.

I have had a bit of a go at making some earrings from bought beads but I wanted to make some more unique ones. Recently I was looking at uses for milk bottles (when I was doing a post on plastic plant markers) and I saw these cool plastic earrings. I thought that they looked so cute and they didn’t look recycled at all.

I already had some earring hooks and jump rings so I thought that I would have a go at making some myself. I was half expecting them to turn out looking a bit tacky and unprofessional but they turned out surprisingly well.

I couldn’t believe how easy and quick it was to make them and thought that I would have a go at doing a tutorial so that you can make your own. So here goes …

Plastic Earrings from Milk Bottles

What you’ll need:

• Earring hooks
• Jump rings
• Old Milk Bottle
• Scissors
• Compass
• Small pliers

Method:

1. Cut a piece of plastic from a used milk bottle. The piece needs to be at least 7.5 cm (3 inches) wide along one of the sides. If you need to remove the label here is a good tip.

2. Cut six strips from the piece of plastic so that you end up with 6 thin strips that are 4 or 5 mm wide and 7.5 cm long.

3. Now you need to make the different sizes for the loops.

•  Keep two of your thin strips as 7.5 cm long.
• Cut two of the thin strips to 6 cm long.
•  Cut the remaining two thin strips to 4.5 cm long.

4.  Use something with a sharp point (I used a compass) to make a small hole in both ends of each of the plastic strips. Make the holes approximately 2 mm in from the ends of each strip.

5. To make one earring:

• Start by threading one of the 4.5 cm strips onto a jump ring so that it forms a loop.
• Then add one of the 6 cm strips to the jump ring so that it makes a bigger loop around the first one.
• Add one of the 7.5 cm strips in the same way so that you now have three loops increasing in size.
• Add an earring hook to the jump ring and use some small pliers to close the jump ring.

6. Repeat step 5 to make the other earring!

I think they look super cute!