Decorative dish, recycled plastic, hand painted with flowers and two tortoise

New Recycled Product – Painted Dishes

Being a keen recycler and worried about the amount of single use plastic ending up in the environment, I’ve created a new recycled product.

These soap dishes are made from plastic fruit/salad punnets and painted with glass paints. As I covered in a previous post going completely plastic free isn’t necessarily the best environmental solution, taking transport costs into consideration etc. It can be better to reuse and recycle, Denis the Dustcart has some good information. So I’m reusing this plastic to give it a longer life.

The plastic containers are thoroughly washed before painting, mostly in a dishwasher. This can result in a happy accident, like this dragonfly soap dish, which melted into a more robust shape!

They also solve the problem of soggy soap, which was what inspired me to try and make a soap dish in the first place! They either have a ridged base or a raised insert with holes, which helps keep the soap dry. I’ve been testing out the tortoise one above and pleased to say my soap is now in much better condition. Every now and then I just empty water out of the base. You can buy these soap dishes here, including customised ones.

Each one is painted with glass paints, so they are waterproof and wipeable but wash with care, as the paint is not scrub proof! Love to know if you’ve repurposed plastic or recycled anything else to make a new product. Do leave a comment