How can I reuse or recycle big cooking oil cans?
Around our area, it’s unusual to see a take-out place without empty big cooking oil cans outside.
Hopefully they’re recycled as part of a commercial doorstep recycling programme but most of time it seems like they’re going to landfill – here they were next to a skip filled with other random rubbish. Very frustrating.
If we took some of them, what could we do with them? I know after intensive cleaning, crude oil barrels can be made into woodburners/rocket stoves and barbecues – could these essentially big tin cans be used for a similar thing on a smaller scale or is the metal not heavy duty enough?
With the top taken off (and the edge made safe), I imagine they could be turned into planters for the garden – albeit ones that might rust over time.
Any other suggestions?
Cut the top out and you have a nice office or bathroom trash can, or turn it on it’s side and stack several in a pyramid for a storage bin, or turn it upside down and use it for a drum…way to go!
Remove the top, make some holes in the base and use to grow plants. It helps to line the sides with cardboard as this will help to retain water. These cans were probably the single most popular container in the show gardens at Gardeners’ World Live this week.
Some time not to long ago I recall seeing a design for a stove from exctly this sort of container. I think it was permaculture magazine, and called a rocket stove.
Yeah, rocket stoves are great – I’ve made a couple.
http://www.publik.dk/hotsummer/projects/rambling_range/