3 ways to recycle plastic bottle rings into crochet earrings

3 ways to recycle plastic rings into earrings

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.

plastic bottle rings

Materials for the recycled crochet earrings


Abbreviation:


ch: chain

sl st: slip stitch

sc: single crochet

hdc: half double crochet

dc: double crochet

R: row / round

crochet earrings
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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.

crochet earrings

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.

crochet earrings

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?

3 ways to recycle plastic bottle rings into crochet earrings
3 ways to recycle plastic bottle rings into crochet earrings

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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