How can I reuse or recycle baby bottle teats/nipples?
We’ve had an email from Rebecca:
Love the website, have found it really useful but I want to know if I can recycle rubber teats? I am going to sell the bottles on e-bay for re-use but I know Mums won’t want used teats and we have about 25 of varying sizes and I cannot bear to just chuck them.
Would our local recycling centre take them, is there even a facility for recycling rubber bottle teats?
Would love any suggestions.
Apparently the clear teats are more likely to be silicone than rubber – silicone can be recycled but isn’t done so widely. If they are rubber, there may be a collection bin at your local household waste recycling centre but most recycling of rubber seems to be on a bigger scale – car tyres for example.
So what about reuses? It might be worth calling a local animal shelter to see if they could use them for bottle feeding small creatures – they might need the attached bottles too though.
Any other suggestions?
in a similar vein to animal shelters maybe small scale farmers or smallholders might want them to bottle feed lambs (where the ewe has died or had triplets)
Had triplets? why, do sheep only have 2 nipples….?!!!!
Bottle teats, if they are ruber, can be cut up finely and composted – after al it is a natural substance. However, I believe re-use of anything and everything is far better than recycling.
Does anyone know how I can recycle man-made fabrics that are beyond wearing, not appropriate for ‘rag’ etc. People have suggested charity shops, but they wouldn’t want such items. Council 3rd world bins ask for only wearable clothes, so this is becoming a problem. I buy all second hand clothes but have to avoid wool as I am married to a staunch vegan.
Please send suggestions to this noticeboard or direct to me at lynettarule@googlemail.com thanks.
Hi Lynette,
We’ve covered some items – such as man-made fleeces – but I’ll ask more generally on the site tomorrow.
-louisa :)
I realise this was asked a long time ago but thought it might be useful for anyone reading it now. The Sue Ryder charity shops take all kinds of material scraps to be used as stuffing in furniture.
I think you will find plenty of Mothers who won’t mind using used teats for their babies. They are designed to be sterilised after all. Steam, coldwater sterilising solutions, boiling. They all get them germ free and ready to use. Here in New Zealand, used teats are frequently bought and sold on our most popular internet trading site. As long as they have no cracks or holes in them they should be fine for another baby. Only chuck them if they are perished.
i thought they’d need a hole in them to get the milk out! lol
are there companies that does the recycling, I mean buy the teats off of you or have you send them the teats and they do all the work?
I have recently used my old bottle nipple for crafts and baked goods. I mean decorating! You can use the old bottle or trim the base of the nipple to fit a plastic soda bottle. I’ve used paints of all sorts for my crafts to do a splatter affect and also to tye dye. When I use them for baking, I either fill the bottles with a batter or icing to decorate the baked goods. I’ve even seen a friend use an old nipple to dye hair!! It’s perfect for just doing your roots or for highlights! It’s amazing what you can do with stuff laying around the house.
We reused the bottles as beakers for science experiments at home. Mine could take boiling water no problem, so great for testing the insulating properties of various fabrics. We used the tests upside down and plasticine to hold the temperature probe in place. Saved us buying a set of glass beakers. I have also cut a test and slipped it around the base of a plant to give extra support, as it was a bit leggy. Still needing to know what to do with the rest of the tests though.
Should read teats, not tests. Autocorrect!
For small teats, like those that come with disposable bottles, snip the nipple off, then use them to close bread bags, by threading the top of the bag through. I would normally knot bread bags, but sometimes the children can’t undo the knot and so too the bag open. Hopefully with the silicone, it will stop that.
For small teats, like those that come with disposable bottles, snip the nipple off, then use them to close bread bags, by threading the top of the bag through. I would normally knot bread bags, but sometimes the children can’t undo the knot and so too the bag open. Hopefully with the silicone, it will stop that.
My DS has also noted that the larger test sizes are good for drip irrigation, just stick it in the soil of a pot plant and fill it up. Good for short holidays.