You probably have seen, at least once in your life, one of those campaigns against plastic pollution and how it destroys the environment and kill many animals. I know I did, and it left a huge impact on me. Naturally, I became interested in recycling things. Recycling is the process to turn a waste of materials into a new object, giving it a “second life”. Thinking about it, I remembered how many artists throughout the years have used recycling as a vessel for their art. And it gave me the idea to use my own form of art, crochet, to recycle plastic bottles as a whole, but also specifically those annoying little plastic rings. That’s how I ended up making these 3 ways to recycle plastic rings into earrings using crochet.

Materials for the recycled crochet earrings
- 6 plastic bottle rings
- 1,25 mm and 2,25mm crochet hooks
- pearl cotton yarn of various colors depending on your preferences
- 6 ear wires (earrings hooks)
- optional: some little beaded pearl
Abbreviation:
ch: chain
sl st: slip stitch
sc: single crochet
hdc: half double crochet
dc: double crochet
R: row / round

3 ways to recycle plastic bottle rings into crochet earrings
1st pair of crochet earrings
Crochet needed: 2,25 mm and thick pearl cotton yarn.
Round 1: Make a slipknot and join the yarn around the plastic ring with a single crochet. Make 39 sc more around the plastic rings. (40)
Sl st in the 1st stitch of the round.
Round 2: ch 1, 40 sc (40)
Sl st in the 1st sc of the round.
R3: Ch 1, 1 sc, (ch 5, skip 3 stitches, 2 sc) repeat this 6 times. At your last ch 5, skip 3 stitches and make only 1 sc. You should then have a total of 6 ch5 spaces.
R4: ch 1 then turn your work, 1 sc, (10 hdc in the ch5 space, sc in the next 2 stitches) repeat this until the end of the round. At the end make your last 10 hdc in the last ch5 space, then 1 sc.
Cut the yarn and weave in the ends. Set your earring hook in the middle of the part where there is no loops. Make 2 earrings this way and you will be done with this first pair.

2nd pair of earrings
Crochet needed: 1,25 mm and thin pearl cotton yarn.
For this earring, we will start by making the middle of it before joining the yarn around the plastic ring.
Make a magic circle.
Round 1: 9 sc in the magic circle, close the circle then sl st in the 1st sc of the round at the end. (9)
Round 2: (ch 4, sl st next stitch) repeat this until the end of the round. At the last ch 4, make your sl st in the 1st sc of previous round.
You should have 9 ch4 spaces at the end of the round.
R3: 2 sl st in the 1st ch 4 space (make the sl st in the first 2 loops of the ch4), [ch 4, sl st in the next ch 4 space] repeat until the end. At the last ch4, make a sl st in the 2nd sl st from the beginning.
R4: 2 sl st in the 1st ch 4 space (make the sl st in the first 2 loops of the ch4), take the plastic ring then join your work around it with a sc, 6 sc around the plastic ring, [1 sc around both: the next ch4 space and the plastic ring, 6 sc around the plastic ring only] repeat until the end.
At the end cut the yarn and make an invisible join in the 1st sc of the round. Weave in ends.
Make 2 earrings this way, and place the earring hooks on top of it.

3rd pair of earrings
Crochet needed: 1,25 mm and thin pearl cotton yarn.
Round 1: Make a slipknot and join the yarn around the plastic ring with a single crochet. Make 32 sc more around the plastic rings. (33)
At the end make a sl st in the first sc of the round.
Round 2: Ch 1, (sl st in the next stitch, ch 1) repeat this until the end.
Cut yarn and leave a long tail for sewing later, fasten off.
Flower 1
Crochet needed: 1,25 mm and thin pearl cotton yarn.
Make a magic circle.
Round 1: (ch 3, dc2tog, ch 3, sl st in the magic circle) x 4
Close the circle tight, cut yarn and weave in ends.
Flower 2
Crochet needed: 1,25 mm and thin pearl cotton yarn.
Make a magic circle with color 1 yarn.
Round 1: 5 sc, sl st in the 1st stitch (5)
Round 2: join color 2 yarn, (ch 3, 2 dc in the same stitch, sl st in the next stitch) x 5. Sl st in the 1st sc of the round at the end.
Cut yarn and weave in ends.
Sew the 2 flowers on the earrings using the long tail you left before. Make 2 earrings this way, and make sure to sew the flowers on the other earring in a mirror like style. Sew a little bead in the middle of the 1st flowers.

You have now 3 cute crochet earrings and made a good deed by recycling bottle plastic rings, isn’t that awesome?

If you have trouble with a part of the pattern, don’t worry: I have made a video tutorial for this, that you can watch down below:
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