Has anyone built a pond with recyclable material? Been thinking of using old pop bottles filled with the soil I dig out, to make an inner wall, build a breeze block outer and skim it. Thoughts? Any welcome.
recyclable materials?
- Thread starter paul79
- Start date
You from New Zealand originally?
I haven't done it...yet. I've considered two things so far. Straw bale for the above ground walls, skimmed with stucco. The thing is I have a bunch of styrofoam concrete forms (ICF) I got off Craig's List. Thinking of these for above ground wall and packing with clay and pouring some concrete in a grid beam pattern.
Filling pop bottles with dirt, sounds like a lot of work.
I haven't done it...yet. I've considered two things so far. Straw bale for the above ground walls, skimmed with stucco. The thing is I have a bunch of styrofoam concrete forms (ICF) I got off Craig's List. Thinking of these for above ground wall and packing with clay and pouring some concrete in a grid beam pattern.
Filling pop bottles with dirt, sounds like a lot of work.
HTH
Howard
I reuse what I can where it make sense.
There was road construction in my area last summer and they gave away the large plastic containers used to ship liquid wax.. They hold 250 or so gallons when full. One could cut the top off and bury for a nice little in ground pond. Depth is your choice. Last summer I played with connecting several together along with a up flow barrel filter in my driveway.
I currently have one good sized in ground pond but it just a hole with a liner. I need to play with ways of stabilizing the sides and build a 2 or 3 more.
There was road construction in my area last summer and they gave away the large plastic containers used to ship liquid wax.. They hold 250 or so gallons when full. One could cut the top off and bury for a nice little in ground pond. Depth is your choice. Last summer I played with connecting several together along with a up flow barrel filter in my driveway.
I currently have one good sized in ground pond but it just a hole with a liner. I need to play with ways of stabilizing the sides and build a 2 or 3 more.
Sharon Goode
Mrs.
What code did these containers have on the bottom in a triangle as in a no.1 or a no2 also hdpe or ldpe.
Sharon,
I believe that these are all HDPE plastic ciontainers (High-Density PolyEthylene). I don't think that this plastic is recyclable so they will not have a recycle code. They are usually not intended to be re-used, or recycled in the way you may think. This type of plastic cannot be reformed into another shape. It is what they call "thermo-set" which means that once it is made into a molded shape, that it cannot be ground down, reheated and reformed into another shape. However, since HDPE plastics have certain qualities like non-absorbance of chemicals, they are prized for reuse in their original shape such as a barrel or a drum. That is our (pond peoples) prize. You can clean them or purge them of all the previous chemicals and reuse them for just clean water and fish and no harm can result if you did a good job in the cleaning. Other plastics can absorb chemicals and no matter how well you clean them, they still expel the chemicals that were contained within them. Kinda like a sponge. HDPE doesn't absorb chemicals like that or in that way, so as long as you rinse them thoroughly, you are good.
If we have a plastics engineer here, I will be happy to be corrected on my statements as I am not so certain of them (the recycling and thermoset part anyway). I work with a lot of different plastics, but I am not an engineer in that area. So please forgive me if I have made a mistatement.
Catfishnut
I believe that these are all HDPE plastic ciontainers (High-Density PolyEthylene). I don't think that this plastic is recyclable so they will not have a recycle code. They are usually not intended to be re-used, or recycled in the way you may think. This type of plastic cannot be reformed into another shape. It is what they call "thermo-set" which means that once it is made into a molded shape, that it cannot be ground down, reheated and reformed into another shape. However, since HDPE plastics have certain qualities like non-absorbance of chemicals, they are prized for reuse in their original shape such as a barrel or a drum. That is our (pond peoples) prize. You can clean them or purge them of all the previous chemicals and reuse them for just clean water and fish and no harm can result if you did a good job in the cleaning. Other plastics can absorb chemicals and no matter how well you clean them, they still expel the chemicals that were contained within them. Kinda like a sponge. HDPE doesn't absorb chemicals like that or in that way, so as long as you rinse them thoroughly, you are good.
If we have a plastics engineer here, I will be happy to be corrected on my statements as I am not so certain of them (the recycling and thermoset part anyway). I work with a lot of different plastics, but I am not an engineer in that area. So please forgive me if I have made a mistatement.
Catfishnut
HTH
Howard
In my particular case the IBC's originally contained wax used for curing concrete rather then toxic chemicals. Even with a less then good cleaning job they are fish safe.
I plan to re-engineer this setup next year. I am going to do away with the barrel filter and feed it directly from a larger in ground pond. The water distribution will be changed from a series setup where it flows from pond to pond to a parallel setup where a manifold controls the flow to each pond.
I plan to re-engineer this setup next year. I am going to do away with the barrel filter and feed it directly from a larger in ground pond. The water distribution will be changed from a series setup where it flows from pond to pond to a parallel setup where a manifold controls the flow to each pond.