Recycled Bottle Piggy Bank

Welcome to this instructable on creating a unique and eco-friendly recycled bottle piggy bank! In today's world, finding creative ways to repurpose everyday items is not only fun but also helps us contribute to a more sustainable planet. By reimagining a simple plastic bottle, we can transform it into an adorable piggy bank that encourages both saving money and reducing waste. While there are some ideas like this out there, I have created my own design and process. This 6-step, simple, and fun project will take you less than 10 minutes, and it can hold all of your coins or cash. It also looks great on your desk or in your room, and it is a great way to recycle. One feature of this project is that it can be split in half for easy money access. This piggy bank also has some clear areas on the back and front, which is an easy way to see how full it is. Finally, the pig is super cute and fun.

Supplies

1. Used Plastic Bottle
2. 1 Piece of Pink Construction Paper
3. Scissors
4. Glue Stick or Hot Glue Gun
5. Sharpie or Pen

The first step is to cut your bottle. I am using a regular plastic water bottle; however, any plastic bottle would work; you could use a Gatorade bottle, a chocolate milk bottle, or even a soda bottle. The only thing to keep in mind when choosing what you will use is to make sure that your bottle has a lid and that you can cut into it with scissors. After you have your bottle, just make sure it is clean and dry.

1. Take your bottle and scissors and cut just below the wrapper, all the way around. It can be a little tough to do this with a slippery bottle, but grabbing the bottle tightly and "pinching" it with the scissors helps to get a cut started (see image). If you don't have a wrapper or it fell off, just go about 4 inches down from the cap. After the cut, you should have two parts of the bottle: a top and a bottom.
2. With scissors, cut slits into the top half of the bottle to help it fit into the bottom later on. These slits should be about one inch apart all the way around and 2 inches deep. This step can be a little confusing, so I included some images that should make it a little easier to understand (cut the black lines in the image). But don't worry too much if your cuts aren't perfect; it won't matter too much, and it will work out in the end.

Now we turn our attention to the bottom half of the bottle as we wrap it in pink paper.

1. Take the bottom half of your bottle and the construction paper. Arrange the paper so that it is horizontal, and place the bottom half of the bottle in the corner. Trace a line to get a strip of paper as wide as the bottle, and cut the paper all the way through.
2. Apply glue all over the paper and add an extra line of glue at each end.
3. Wrap the paper around the bottle half; it should wrap all the way around and overlap just a bit.
4. Cut the hole for the coins by piercing the bottle in half with scissors in the middle. Cut a rectangular hole just big enough for a quarter to fit through, about 1 inch by 1/4 inch.

In this step, you will give your recycled piggy bank feet and ears out of pink construction paper.

1. On the remaining pink construction paper, trace out seven circles. The circles should be the size of your cap; this is the perfect proportion (if you have a bigger bottle, it usually has a bigger cap, so the feet and ears will be a good size relative to each other).
2. Fold 4 circles in half
3. Trace along the edge of one-half of the paper circles with a marker (see image).
4. Apply glue to the blank sides and stick them firmly to the bottom of the bottle. Place the paper circles (feet) so that the slit you cut is on top and the feet are on the bottom, as they are in the image.
5. Fold 2 of your paper circles in half (save the last one).
6. Color a semicircle on one-half of the paper circles (see image).
7. Apple glue on the blank sides and stick the paper circles (ears) firmly on top of the pig, right on the edge of the bottle. The ears should be on either side of the slit you cut and on the open side of the bottle.

Next is your pig's head, or the top half of your recycled bottle, as we decorate it and create the front of your piggy bank.

1. Apply glue to the last pink circle that you cut.
2. Firmly press the pink circle on the cap of your bottle.
3. Draw two ovals on the paper with your Sharpie; this is the nose of the pig. Screw the cap back on when you're done.
4. Draw your pig's eyes on the bottle with a Sharpie, and make sure you know which way is up, as determined by the nose of your pig when the cap is fully screwed on (the ovals show which way is up).
5. Draw the eyes by tracing two circles, one inside the other, on the left and right sides of the pig's head, and color in the smaller circle with your Sharpie.

In this step, we will use the rest of our paper to make a curly tail for your piggy bank. I made this instructable as easy and eco-friendly as possible. So just one sheet of paper should be enough to cut all the shapes you need.

1. Cut a rectangle out of pink construction paper, about 3 inches long and 1/4 inch wide.
2. To make the tail curly, twist the paper rectangle around your scissors and hold it there for 30 seconds.
3. Apply glue to one end of the tail and firmly attach it to the back of the pig's body (see image).

This piggy bank splits into two halves on purpose so that you can access it easily when you want to spend your money. When you want to put the two halves back together, simply press the slits we cut on the head together and slide the head into the body so that it nests inside the other half by about two inches. Congratulations! You have finished your amazing piggy bank that looks good and helps the planet! If you want to go one step further, you can use your marker to decorate your piggy bank to make it look even cooler.