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Making your life greener - one bite at a time.

Reuse plastic bottle tops and plastic jar lids and make some DIY plastic people.

This little fellow is ideal to hang in the trees, the children love them in their special garden play areas. You may have to go to the local cafe or bar and repurpose their used lids and corks.

Children will have fun with this recycling project. Use your imagination and let it flow. Other great ideas include a bottle windmill. It looks good (refer photo), but if might not function well.

To make your DIY Plastic People, here is what you need:

Hat, Head and Body

4 lids of different sizes for the hat

1 large lid for the head

1 small lid for the neck

2 large lids for the body

Arms

2 orange juice container caps for the shoulders

2 champagne corks or ordinary corks

2 toothpaste caps

straw for divider

Legs

14 caps from orange juice or cream containers

straw for divider

Here is what you do:

Pierce the centre of each lid or top with a nail. Thread the legs and arms with string or strong yarn.

Attach them to the two large lids that make the body.

Make up the hat and head by threading lids and attach to body pieces.

The body is then joined with colored insulation tape.

Draw a face on with permanent texta or paint (non-toxic), and you now have a complete person.

Note: Collect and colour with discarded wrapping paper. Create Robot themes, Christmas themes, Birthday themes, Seasonal Themes - this DIY craft idea is only limited by your imagination.

Avoid plastic toys as much as possible and go for cardboard, wood and organic cloth (make toys out of natural things too, like items found from nature, leaves, gumnuts, pine cones, bark, shells, rocks, sticks and mud).

PVC plastic is used to make different types of children’s products, including some teethers and soft plastic toys. Some manufacturers have removed PVC from their children’s products, especially products intended to be put into children’s mouths. Avoid letting your child put plastic toys in his/her mouth. Toys designed for older children are more likely to contain phthalates or bisphenol A. It is assumed that young children will not mouth these toys—such as action figures and Barbie dolls. To be safe, keep all plastic toys out of children’s mouths.