Great ideas.

I like the ring around the plant idea. I've lost lots of new trees and shrubs to rabbits eating the bark all the way around. There are now lots of spray paints in stores, just for plastics, to improve aesthetics.
Find someone(s) who has a hobby greenhouse. You can fill them with water, put them on plastic shelves, on sunny wall, to collect heat from sun during day. They then release the heat during night to reduce supplemental heating. Works great especially if you have lots of sunny days in winter. I've also used cheap, black garbage bins for same purpose. Then recycle (bottles only) in spring.
One year before I started smushing them in trash compactor, I took zillions down to road for weekly recycle truck, in clear plastic bags, as is required by our pick-up. I'm talking about twenty 40 gallon bags of recycle (other stuff included as I don't take it down every week). It was so impressive I took pictures. :lol: Looks like the truck couldn't take the very last bag as they left one. Next day the bag disappeared so I'm hoping someone was able to recycle them.
I make a scoop to get the water out of seats when I empty the spa and to get the last little bit that the submersible pump can't get. Very effective and flexible enough that it doesn't catch on the jets or mar the finish. Great for bird seed, dog food, and all other kinds of things. I do, though, like to use a metal one for getting potting soil out of bags.
gg=alice