Top 10 ways to reuse a wine bottle

If you are anything like the db team, it won’t take long to amass a collection of empty wine bottles.

Recycling unwanted wine bottles is of course a must. Glass is 100% recyclable and can be endlessly reprocessed with no loss of quality, helping to conserve non-renewable fossil fuels and reduce the emission of harmful gasses into the atmosphere.

However in the spirit of upcycling, where old products are given a new lease of life rather than being recycled, why not consider turning your empty bottles into a nifty gadget, decorative feature or even a piece of furniture? You would be amazed at the number of ways in which a wine bottle can be put to good use, long after you have enjoyed its contents.

We have scoured the web to bring you some of the most creative uses for your empties. Click through to find out more…

As a slow drip irrigator

Turn your used wine bottles into a slow drip irrigator to feed your plants. Simply drill a hole through a cork and stopped a bottle filled with water. Position the bottle neck first into your plant pot to give your plants a steady stream of moisture.

As a quirky bird feeder

Give your garden birds some love and brush up on your carpentry by fashioning a wine bottle feeder. Simply leave a space at the bottle of the feeder for the seeds to trickle into.

As a single stem vase

Simple, but effective. Reuse your bottle as a decorative vase.

As garden edging

For something a bit different, drive your empties into the ground to create a garden path lined with your wine bottle memories, or as a flowerbed border. 

As a boot stand

Have trouble getting your tall boots to stand up straight? Tuck a wine bottle inside to keep your closet ship shape.

As a trendy chalk message board

Pick up a pot of chalkboard paint and turn your empty bottles into a quirky notepad. You could start by writing yourself a reminder to “buy more wine”.

As a creative light display

Feed a string of lights into a bottle by carefully drilling a 3/4 inch hole using a tile grinder in the back of a bottle and light it up like a Christmas tree.

As a book end

No special skills required, simply use your most attractively labelled or sentimental bottle of wine as a book end. Filling it with sand will give it greater stability.

As a storage container

Who needs mason jars when you can keep your store cupboard essentials in a wine bottle. Perfect for rice, lentils or other grains and dried goods, as well as M&Ms.

As a creative coffee table

For the more adventurous DIY-er, try your hand at creating a low-slung coffee table, topped off with some floral foliage.

To build a house

Finally, you could use your empties to build a house. Yes, a house. A Russian man has achieved just that by building a house made almost entirely of Champagne bottles in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk where it is known as the “Palace of Oz”. Around 12,000 bottles were needed to build the 99-square meter house, which took three years to complete. While not a job for the casual DIY-er, the feat should be applauded as a masterclass in upcycling.