Recycled Plastic Barrels

Recycled Plastic Barrels are a great product that can easily be transformed to collect and store rainwater for your garden and other outdoor uses. Collecting and Storing rain water in plastic rain barrels is also a great way to go green and help take the pressure of local water storages, especially in areas that are affected by drought.

Collecting and storing rain water also has the effect of turning your garden greener which adds value to your home and garden and also provides extra water for vegetable gardens that thrive on rain water because of its purity and lack of additives and contaminants.

An even more effective way to be greener again though, is to use recycled plastic barrels. Used plastic barrels come ready made to be easily turned into rain barrels and in most cases it’s just a case of cleaning them out and they’re then ready to store rainwater. It is important first to check what was originally in the barrel. Some plastic barrels are used to store chemicals and it may be quite difficult remove all traces, so be fussy about the where you source your barrels. So by recycling, you’re basically cutting out the process of turning one plastic product into another and instead just reusing it in more or less its present form.

Recycled plastic barrels are fairly easy to source and once upon a time they were an item that was given away for free. These days though with the increased popularity of rain barrels and with recycled plastic barrels being such an obvious choice to transform into rain barrels, used plastic barrels are now a lot harder to source for free. The good news is though, that these types of barrels can still be sourced relatively easily and inexpensively.

To source recycled plastic barrels the internet is one of the best places to start. Also food processing plants, salvage yards and garage sales are all an option. I sourced mine from a livestock supply outlet that used them to store grain. So there are many places that do use them to store food products and then discard them when no longer required. The most important point though, is to know what it contained in its past life so you know it’s not contaminated. If you’re unsure what it contained beforehand it’s probably best not to use it.

Once you’ve sourced your recycled plastic barrels it’s then just a case of turning them into a rain barrels. This is a relatively easy exercise and comes down to sourcing just a few common items from your local hardware store. Basically, the items you’ll need to add to you plastic barrel to turn it into a rain barrel are an inlet, an outlet and an overflow. You can also easily add a water level indicator and a stand to raise it off the ground. If you do decide to add a stand though, make sure it is secure enough support the weight, as 55 gallons of water weighs about 460 lbs.

The last item you will need to complete the set up will be a downspout diverter. You may want to source this item first, as the type of downspout diverter you choose will have a bearing on how you go about installing the inlet to your rain barrel. These can be easily sourced over the internet and through retail outlets. It also pays to do some research before you make your purchase as downspout diverters come in many shapes and sizes that do have some specific good points and not so good points.

Another point to take into consideration is, because you’re making your rain barrel out of what might basically be an old drum, you may also want to cover it with a screen or hide it behind some bushes. This though, may add to the overall cost of your rain barrel and hence the money you’ve just saved may then get spent trying to hide your rain barrel. In some respects this then tends to defeat the purpose of making a rain barrel from a recycled plastic barrel. Therefore to overcome this, consideration should be given to your choice of downspout diverter. There are some downspout diverters that do allow you to place your rain barrel some distance from the downspout. This may be a preferable option as you can then position your rain barrel in a more discrete position without the need to spend the money you’ve just saved on a screen or some other means of hiding your rain barrel.

So there you have it. I was easily able to convert two old plastic barrels into some rain barrels. It’s a great way to save a few dollars and it’s also a great way to use recycled plastic barrels without turning them into a completely different plastic products.