From upcycling to repurposing
Colourful recycled cans decorated with patterns and repurposed as planters for vibrant garden flowers. Image: Husnain/stock.adobe.com
It’s funny how trending content on social media can make age-old ideas seem new and exciting. In my usual scrolling this week, I came across a good few articles about how some gardeners on TikTok are promoting the use of tin cans as planters for the upcoming spring/summer season here in the UK.
It’s an upcycling classic and one that is easy for anyone to do – I’m thinking of doing it myself, as I’ll have leftover paint tins after my last stint of decorating in the next couple of weeks. Painting the outside of the tins themselves (as shown on the featured image above) is also another way of adding even more colour into your garden. I particularly liked Mrs Clare Hoops on TikTok using a garden paint aerosol can for her tin can decoration – double the metal packaging fun.
I was pleased to see the influencers especially note that you must rinse the cans out and punch air holes in before using them to plant herbs and flowers. Seems like common sense, but you have to remember in this industry that not everyone is as ‘metal-minded’ as you are! One commenter pointed out that the cans won’t look as nice once they’re rusted, while others argued that rust adds to the charm, and that iron oxide in small quantities is actually good for plants.
In related news, this time in terms of repurposing, my best friend recently posted a photo of her mother’s ‘mystery tin’ and asked her Instagram followers to guess what was inside. Mainly everyone said a sewing kit, which shows how much of a classic repurposing choice that is for biscuit tins. The answer was actually savoury crackers.
Image: Sarah M Williams
Some were disappointed to learn this, and questioned the choices, but the savoury lovers here may agree with me that finding crackers instead of biscuits is a win. Pass the cheese!
It’s always fun to see how metal packaging is kept and reused. We’re big on repurposing gifting tins in the office. As you can imagine, being a publisher in the food, drink and packaging space, all our beautiful tins are filled with either pens, other stationery or snacks!
So here’s a fun challenge for our readers this week: see how many repurposed cans you can find. You could be pleasantly surprised. If you are, do send some photos my way!
Alex Rivers (she/her), CanTech International editor
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