Soda Can Succulent Planter

For my upcycle project I have decided to try and repurpose waste produced by many people every day including me, empty cans. I plan to take empty soda, tea and beer cans and repurpose them into planters for small plants such as succulents or cacti. The granola or earth core aesthetic will be the guiding theme of the project. Personally, I am very interested in sustainability and making a humanity less wasteful, a big role in reducing our footprint is producing less waste by reusing products when possible. Having more plants and cultivating nature in general is another great path to sustainability so not only will I be reducing waste with this project but also giving some plants a new home. Before I get into the details of my project I want to lay out the foundation of the aesthetic I am going for. Granola or earthcore is an aesthetic that places a large emphasis on caring for the earth and living among what it has to offer. This doesn’t mean rejecting all technology in fact quite the opposite. We can continue the efforts to advance technology and knowledge just by also admiring and respecting the world around us. Doing small things such as buying from sustainable brands and re-using or repairing things when possible is a huge staple of the earthcore aesthetic. Thrifting, hiking, camping, climbing and many other outdoor activities all fall under the earthcore umbrella. Baking your own food, gardening and composting are also considered earthcore.

In the above images you can see the greens, browns and natural colors present in earthcore. You can also see the emphasis on nature, being outdoors and appreciating the earth.

The second component of my upcycle project was that I wanted to recycle something I already had. I thought of everything I go through in a day and what came to mind as a starting material was soda cans. I drink a lot of soda and although I recycle the cans I wanted to turn those cans into something new. I looked up some can related projects and found some craft websites that turned soda cans into planters. I loved this idea and decided to take it to the next level by painting the cans with acrylic paint as well. Functionally my goal was to create a pot that holds the plants and artistically my goals were for the materials to all be upcycled and convey an earth core/granola aesthetic.

Build Process

The  first step in completed this project was collecting the materials. I started saving all the cans I had and asking around if anyone was looking to rehome some succulents. Thankfully I had a friend who is moving and was looking to rehome some succulents given to her recently at a work event. These succulents were still in their original potting which was very restrictive so planting them into a larger pot with some fresh dirt would do them well. Next I pulled together all my tools. I used scissors and Leatherman knife to cut the cans. Originally I planned to used a can opener but when I tried to do this it didn’t produce a clean cut and instead deformed the metal.

After this happened I sort of had to rethink what I was going to do since I was hoping the can opener would give me a clean edge. Using a knife I carefully cut the tops off of the cans and then went over the edge with scissors to give it a smoother finish.

Painting 

Now all my cans were ready. I washed them for a second time and let them dry. In the meantime I started thinking of ways to paint the cans. In a previous blog post I pondered over some designs I had seen online. Ultimately I ended up going with my own design ideas that I felt would match best with the nature, earth core aesthetic I was going for. I decided I would paint each can a different nature scene. The first can I painted was a black dr. pepper can. I added some vines but the green was too dark over the black. I ended up scrapping this can and instead using an empty jam jar I had lying around. I painted vines over the paper label. Thankfully my other three soda cans were lighter in color so the paint is significantly more visible. On one can I painted waves with some palm tree leaves, on another I painted and island and on the final can I painted a tree by a lake. I am not very artistic and haven’t painted in a very long time but I enjoyed trying to convey the scenes on this non traditional cylindrical canvas. I ended up using more of a polka dot method to get the paint to stick to the aluminum because when I tried doing brushstrokes the color wasn’t sticking very well. Using dots I could layer the paint a lot better and make the scenes pop. I ended up painting each can waiting for it to dry and then going over the paint again.

Final Results

Here you can see the result of the painted cans. Overall I am happy with how they turned out. I think the yerba matte can conveys the earth core aesthetic the best since the design of the can is granola adjacent already. Having the old design still visible underneath what I painted really emphasizes that nature core look. The last step was to repot the succulents into their new homes. I carefully took the plants out of their original pots, loosened some dirt from their roots, added some new soil into the new pots when needed and replanted the plants in their new pots. I gave them each a bit of water and now I will be monitoring them for the next few days. Below you can see the final results of my project.

Reflection and Future Goals

Reflecting back I do think I achieved my functional goals. The planters hold the plants nicely and also have more room than the original pots the plants came in allowing them to grow bigger.  Aesthetically painting the cans was the right choice. I think I was able to convey my aesthetic goals a lot better by adding nature scenes to the cans. With the old designs still poking through it still shows the original purpose of the cans but also comes full circle with the emphasis on nature and recycling.

Moving forward I plant to continue to care for the plants and see how they grow. Eventually I may have to repot the fern again since those tend to continue to grow but the succents will be fine permanently in the cans. If I do repot the fern I hope to continue the trend of this project and pot it into a large recycled glass jar or even milk carton. I will also be sanding down the edges of the cans. The scissors gave them a smooth finish but they are still pretty sharp so I would like to dull those edges a bit more.

I really enjoyed doing this project. I hadn’t painted anything in a very long time so it was a nice change to be able to get creative and spruce up some cans and give some succulents a new home.

Sources:

1.https://aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/Naturecore

2.https://aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/Campcore

3.https://www.polkadotchair.com/diy-coke-can-succulent-planter/