How to: recycle old Coke bottles into urban soap containers

Ever drink a Coke, Pepsi or bottled water? Those plastic bottles are a huge source of carbon buildup in our waste channels. But bottles still have untapped potential even after their original contents are gone, sometimes it just takes a small innovative company to see a business opportunity.

New Soap, Old Bottle is a perfect example of sustainable ideation turning waste streams into profit. The company sanitizes old bottles previously filled with drinks like Heineken, Coke, Pepsi, and Sprite and fills them with brand name soap cleaners like Windex, 409 and Dawn.

And although the company is selling brand name products from large brand names, those larger companies have yet to show any similar initiatives. That speaks toward a tendency for large companies to focus on incrementally improving existing business processes, rather than seeking new ways to embrace sustainability.

Arm & Hammer Essentials is a good example of that incremental progress, which packages its cleaning solution in compact, high concentrate bottles that are mixed with water to create the end cleaning solution. That creates a smaller carbon footprint because the solution is housed in a smaller bottle.

Highlighting its point, Arm & Hammer points out that “. . . Americans throw away 60 billion pounds of plastic each year? Each ARM & HAMMER® Essentials™ Cleaners refill pack you buy means 2 less plastic spray bottles in landfills.”

Laundry soap is taking a similar approach with a trend toward concentrated bottles that dilute during the clothes cleaning process.

Still, sometimes a more radical approach is necessary to jumpstart the industry. On its site, New Soap, Old Bottle writes:

Each bottle is cleaned, sanitized and processed for reuse as packaging for your favorite brand of liquid soap.

Big companies aren’t going to do this on their own.  So we’ll do it for them.  We buy name brand liquid soap by the barrel and package it in old bottles here in America.

Considering the sources of its containers, most of the products New Soap, Old Bottle sells come in 20 ounce or 2 liter containers. It’s a unique, green way to add visual appeal to a room and a great twist on converting waste into a useful product.