The next time you go to toss that old whiskey bottle in the trash, think again. With a little but of inspiration inspired by the examples below you can easily put those bottles to good use.

#1- Build a Temple!

This very cool Buddhist temple in Thailand built by monks is made entirely from one million recycled beer bottles. Buddhist monks built the Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew temple in the Sisaket province of Thailand from Heineken and Chang Beer bottles, and must’ve taken a while to build (not to mention a lot of beer)!

This rather ingenious idea from Alfred Heineken, head of the Heineken Brewery was apparently inspired by his Caribbean vacation here he noticed beer bottles littered across the beaches (including his own bottles). To combat the lack of affordable housing he decided to create bottles in the shape of interlocking bricks!

#2 – Build An Entire House Out Of Whiskey Bottles

If you have a bit of architectural know-how, construction experience, extra money and spare space – why not build an entire house out of empty whiskey bottles? The nature of empty whiskey bottles lends itself quite well to insulation and ventilation – but they might be a great breeding ground for insects, so beware.

#3 – Make A Solar Water Heater

One very creative man in China used empty beer bottles to create a solar water heater. In this instance, holding on to those old whiskey bottles might prove to be more Earth-friendly than bringing them to the recycling center; water in the bottles is warmed up by the sun, then sent to a bathroom or other area in the home where warm water is required. You can reduce your dependency on your water heater – and can probably lessen your electric and/or gas bill, too!

#4 – Put A Recycled Dome Bottle Roof On Your Home

Over at the Centre For Alternative Technology in Powys, Wales in the United Kingdom, a domed roof has been created using old glass bottles. There’s no reason why glass whiskey bottles couldn’t be used for a similar purpose. This design doubles as a green way to reuse old bottles – and as a very interesting architectural look.

#5 – Make A Hummingbird Feeder

Instead of throwing your old whiskey bottles away and adding them to the local landfill, you can use them to give back to the world of nature by turning them into hummingbird feeders. Hummingbirds are fascinating to observe, and they add a lot of character to your yard.

Making a hummingbird feeder is surprisingly easy to do; you could even make a variety of them and hang them around your yard to make it a hummingbird haven of sorts.

#6 – Turn Empty Whiskey Bottles Into Drinking Glasses

If the idea of refilling an empty whiskey bottle with more whiskey and drinking it that way doesn’t appeal to you, you could always try turning your old whiskey bottle into a drinking glass. Round whiskey bottles or wine bottles would probably work best in this instance, but you can definitely let your imagination run wild.

This way, the container stays out of the trash heap and begins a new life as a glass that can be used again and again – best of all, it saves you money on having to buy more drinking glasses and creates excellent conversation pieces to boot.

The age of a given offering of whiskey is one that has a great deal of impact on the taste and character, as well as the value and the level of investment accompanying a given example of vintage whiskey. But how does one know for sure, the validity of a given age(as often proposed by the seller..)? The answer resides most often in verified radiocarbon dating. On occasion, a given vintage whiskey is had up for sale projecting an age of one hundred, one hundred and fifty years or more. Given the price premiums on something of this age, (which often can reach in to even the tens of thousands of dollars) The authenticity of these claims has to be insured, for obvious reasons.

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Found in the air in the form of Carbon Dioxide, Carbon 14 is a naturally occurring radioactive particle that plants will take in through the process of photosynthesis. Thus, the amount of these particles that could be found in a given plant would attest to the amounts found naturally in that plant’s environment over the course of it’s lifespan. Even given the decay of these particles over a period of time, the given ratio of these particles to actual “stable” carbon still present allow for a good indication as to the age of a given organic material. This would have been harder today without the impact of an unnatural carbon addition: nuclear testing.

Because of the impact of the nuclear bomb technology, and its demand for testing, carbon 14 particles can often be found in higher concentration levels in those organisms having a lifespan that coincides somewhere with the 1950s. The problem with this method lies most immediately in the fact that anything before about 1950 or so doesn’t have the same clear distinction as to its age boundaries. In this way, it becomes more of an “is it vintage or not” question before an “how old is it exactly” question. Despite this, most fakes found around at present are probably going to have been manufactured after 1950 or so.

Discerning for yourself how to tell a fake is slightly more difficult, as you probably don’t have access to being able to burn the whiskey before electrically charging the process give off for analyzation. For the laity though, the easiest way to check for validity, say, on ebay lies first in the label. Check for small incisions in the bottom of the label, (a process applied by the bottling plant), or any lackings in the luminosity on the label’s lettering will often expose a fake as well.

If you enjoy drinking whiskey, the only downside – if you can even call it that – is figuring out what to do with those empty bottles. You can always recycle them, but that often involves a trip to the recycling center and just isn’t very exciting. A quick look around reveals that many folks have come up with truly innovative things to do with empty bottles- here are some of the best!

Whiskey Bottle Computer

The biggest standout in terms of pure genius and innovation has to be the whiskey bottle computer. There’s little doubt that Janos Marton is the only person on the planet with a computer setup quite like this. Finding similarly innovative things to do with whiskey bottles is not as easy as it sounds – many sites simply suggest sticking a candle in the top – but with a bit of creativity, you can do something clever with one.

Cutting Beer Bottles In Half With A Piece Of String

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Science fans will definitely want to try out this little experiment. Although a beer bottle is used in this experiment, it can most likely be replicated using any other type of glass bottle as well; you just might need a thicker piece of string and a little bit more patience.

Make A Mini Terrarium

After you’ve finished a bottle  let it drain completely, then rinse it thoroughly with water. Remove the label with Goo Gone or another similar product, then prepare it to be a mini terrarium.

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You can choose to put only plants in it, or you can try some cool different experiments by adding ants or worms into the mix. Even if you have limited space, whiskey bottles are small enough that you could theoretically have many different “worlds” surrounding your home or apartment at any given time.

Light The Way With A Whiskey Bottle Oil Lamp

Give your home or apartment a sense of old world charm by lighting it by an oil lamp that you’ve crafted out of an empty bottle. Since different whiskey bottles have different looks, you could end up with a very eclectic collection of oil lamps that add a bit of flair to your surroundings.

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As far as fun little projects go, this is one that just about anyone can do – whether they have a lot of mechanical know-how or not.