Life Hack: Plastic water bottle reuse is cute but useless

It’s hard to exaggerate the harm plastic water bottles do to the environment.

To create them, oil is refined to create the plastic, which profits the oil companies, many of which continue to deny climate change. Once used, the bottles are thrown away and usually pile up in landfills and oceans in the millions, harming nearby animals.

I admit that my family uses disposable plastic water bottles frequently. We buy the plastic water dispensers from Safeway and plastic 16 ounce bottles by the crate.

I’m not proud of this, but I doubt it’s going to change anytime soon unless I somehow persuade my dad to buy a water filter.

For this reason, I was thrilled when my Lifestyles editors showed me a video of a life hack: turning plastic water bottles into reusable tiny cups with handles.

In the video, the Instagram account Lifehack cut the water bottle top and a rectangular section around three-fourths of the way down. This creates a ring that is connected with a strip of the plastic from the side of the bottle and a bottom portion which acts as the cup itself. The ring is bent down and fits onto the bottom of the cup to create a small handle.

I decided to give it a try, and I thought my result ended up looking pretty similar to the one in the video. However, it was only similar, not perfect. The cut edges were rough and uneven and the handle ring didn’t fit into the bottom very well.

With my newly made cup, I tried to put it to use. I filled up the cup with water and tried to drink from it. First, I tried using the handle but found it to be absolutely useless because the plastic material was so flimsy, and the ring fell out of the bottom repeatedly. I couldn’t stop shaking as I put it up to my lips, afraid that I would spill liquid all over the my papers I had on my desk.

I found it much easier to just hold the cup itself, but that made the cutting process completely unnecessary. It would probably have been easier to just refill the water bottle.

This life hack proved to be rather useless. However, I must confess that the cup does look aesthetically pleasing. It doesn’t hold much liquid, but when you’re trying to look eco-friendly but still fashionable, it’s a fun cup to make.