Recycling Projects: Plastic Bottle Piggy Bank

Plastic Bottle Piggy Bank

Here’s a tip from a senior in high school who is planning on attending a $55,000/year college: it’s never too early to start saving for your higher education! So today, I’m going to show all the lovely people on Viridorari, especially the youth, how to make a piggy bank out of a plastic bottle. 
    This project involves minimal amounts of cutting. Please supervise your children during these steps.

    Materials
•    Plastic bottle, 2 liter bottle (the bigger the better!)
•    Pink felt or construction paper
•    Four extra bottle caps
•    Pink and black acrylic paint
•    Pink pipe cleaner
•    Googly eyes (optional)
•    Glue/tape
•    Scissors/knife

Steps
1.    Remove the label from the bottle and clean it thoroughly. Allow to dry.
2.    Cut a slit into the middle of the side of the bottle. This will be your coin slot. The cap of the bottle will be the pig’s nose. The place where you cut the slit will be the top of the piggy bank.
3.    On the bottom side of the piggy bank, glue on four bottle caps. These will be the pig’s feet, and will allow the bottle to stand without rolling.
4.    Paint the entire bottle pink and the “feet” black. Paint to black dots on the bottle cap to make nostrils. You can paint black eyes on, or you can wait for the bottle to dry and glue on eyes. Allow to dry.
5.    Wrap a pink pipe cleaner around your finger to curl it, and then glue one end of the pipe cleaner on the rear end of the pig. Glue googly eyes on the face of the pig, if you didn’t paint them.
6.    Cut two triangles from the pink felt/construction paper and glue them on the head of the pig.
7.    Start saving for college! (Or a car, or a vacation, or a house…)

Pictures courtesy of: http://www.beingcraftyutah.com/2010/04/kids-craft-earth-day.html and http://www.filtersfast.com/articles/How-to-Reuse-Plastic-Water-Bottles.php

Animal of the Month Update

Picture courtesy of: http://wildlifeanimalz.blogspot.com/2012/10/Snow-Leopards.html

Snow leopards are nocturnal, but are most active in the early morning and late afternoon. The mountain ghosts use their long, flexible tails to help them balance as they traverse their mountainous terrains. Snow leopards are listed on the Convention on International Trade, which makes it illegal to transport snow leopard parts across international borders. Attempting to import a snow leopard pelt into the United States can result in a fine of up to $25,000. In Nepal, a similar trade has the potential to result in a five to fifteen year jail sentence. Laws like these will hopefully deter the cruel poaching of leopards and the demand for their pelts, among other body parts. 

Picture courtesy of: 

http://true-wildlife.blogspot.com/2011/11/snow-leopard.html

Sources:

http://www.kewa.org/leo.html

http://www.snowleopard.org/downloads/snow_leopard_fact_sheet_english.pdf