There are a lot of things you can do with a 2l plastic bottle, and that’s a good thing, because there are an awful lot of them. It’s estimated that in North America alone, 3.1million tons of PET gets manufactured each year , and a lot of that goes into the single-use bottles that we get our fizzy pop in.

Where possible, I like to avoid soda. That’s partly because it is terrible for you, and partly because of the waste it generates. But occasionally the wife will bring home the odd bottle of carbonated water, which we then try to recycle in the usual ways.

The problem with recycling is that, well, things don’t just magically become other things. Plastics are difficult to recycle [read: repurpose] on an industrial level, they require a lot of energy to process, and the byproducts aren’t always needed. Sometimes you just have to take things into your own hands and do something at the grassroots level.

As a result, I bring you the One Cut Self-Watering Planter.

There are a lot of tutorials on the internet about how to turn a 2l bottle into a self-watering planter, but this one addresses some of the problems that I’ve found in those designs. We’ll talk about that in a second, but for now, here is how you make it. You will need – An old sock (preferably black, with holes… essentially one destined for the bin) A 2l bottle, similar in design to the one in the pictures.

Method –

– Cut the bottle around the middle, in one cut.

– Remove the lid of the bottle. Push the toe end of the sock up through the neck of the bottle. Tie a not in the sock. Then, pull the ankle part of the sock over the wider end of the bottle (it’ll be naturally held there by the power of elastic!).

– Now fill the bottom of the bottle with water (this will be your reservoir). Invert the top of the bottle, and push it down so that the two halves of the bottle fit snuggly together, and the toe of the sock is immersed in the water. – Fill the sock with soil, and add a plant. In this case, I have put a chilli plant on the top, but you can add anything you like.