Skip to main content

Recycled Aluminum Can Ornament By Employee Angela F.

Thank you to Ops Supervisor Recycling Angela F. in Conover, NC, for showing us how to make homemade Christmas Tree ornaments with material you’ll find right in your recycling bin! Who knew a recyclable aluminum can could be so spectacular?

Instructions:

  1. Take a piece of cardboard and cut it into a circle about 2 inches in diameter.
  2. Cut the top and the bottom off a clean soda can with a scissors and flatten it out.
  3. Take the piece of cardboard and use it as a pattern to cut out 2 circles in the aluminum.
  4. Take one of the circles and fold it in half, open it back up and fold in half the other direction.  Do the same thing evenly between the creases you just made so that you will have pie-shaped creases.
  5. In between each crease, bend the aluminum to create a peak.  Make a small cut in each “valley.” Repeat with the second aluminum circle.
  6. Fold the flaps in on one of the circles to create a point to make the star. You can insert a hook in one of the flaps.
  7. Now, you can leave the ornament one-sided (as pictured) or you can take the second circle and fold the flaps around the first star and have a 2-sided ornament.

We hope you have fun making these recycled can ornaments! Happy Holidays!