What is a new purpose for these? Ideas?

I have the opportunity to pick up about 100 of these pieces of pipe for free. They were used as a giant shoerack at a kids indoor play place.  I feel like they should be saved from the landfill, there must be a good use for them...but what. Any ideas? They're 11 inches long and about 8 inches in diameter.

Bottomless planting pots, keeps mulch away from the plant, while letting the roots grow into the soil. I had some I used at my last house for the plants on drip lines, kept the drip going to the roots, and I filled the space around the pipes with mulch. Got some excellent tomatoes that way in the NM desert!

Other things:
Use them to hold up a surface to keep something off the ground (like table legs, only shorter and if you use a bunch, sturdier.)
Fill them with pieces of bamboo to make bee hotels.
Put front and back boards on them, drill holes, bird condos!
Stomp them hard into your driveway, holes up, to stabilize your soil, keep ruts from forming and give traction.
Fill them with gravel and make them stepping stones across a small stream.
Ship them to me and I'll use them to stabilize MY driveway (wish I had seen them first! I need a section stabilized.)

Really, it depends on what you need. I can do this all night :) Tell us more of your lifestyle, and it could be more focused.

I agree - so I'll put my outside the box hat on and give it a try!
1. slice them on one side then put them around new trees to keep the bunnies from damaging them - the split is so that when the tree get's big they're easier to remove.
2. use them for a border on a raised bed, filling them with dirt or rocks. If filled with dirt, you could even plant herbs or flowers in them.
3. as much as starting trees straight from seeds in the ground is ideal, it can't always be done. If you blocked one end, you'd have a relatively tall pot for starting/rooting trees. Someone was describing using a coffee can to start tomatoes and then removing the plastic lid (can was used upside down with the metal bottom removed). He could plant the tomato without disturbing the roots.
4. find someone who makes a lot of wine and pass them on as bottle holders?
Maybe now that I've started the ball rolling, some others will pitch in!

I think they could be used as:
-little sliders for moving objects (like how tree logs can be used for sliding larger objects)
-making a large multi-part water installation (aboveground or belowground)
-gutters for a roof
-water flowforms (if you cut them in half and had water gush back and forth in a downward pattern)

I knew you guys would have good ideas! I thought about the bottomless pot thing but I plant everything in the ground. I like the idea about stabilizing a road , thought they'd be good for raising a really muddy area by filling in with gravel they definitely seem strong enough to drive on. Thought about short retaining wall but they're uglier than logs which is what I usually use to build terraces so nah.  Would they work like perforated drain pipe if I laid them in a trench like a half inch apart? I only brought home a few to try to figure out what to do with them before bringing home a whole truck load. Maybe like pier blocks for a deck?  The more ideas the better group brainstorming is awesome!  I'm going to have to go get the rest of them even if I don't  "need" them.

I would drill holes in them and use them to make lots of worm towers to put all over my garden!

Yes, I really like the road stabilization idea too, although in my situation, it's "beside the road where yahoos keep driving on the grass creating ruts". A couple of rows of pipes would support the soil and prevent the lousy drivers from compacting it, and then I could actually have hope of keeping the grass alive. Not that grass is the greatest option - in fact if the base of the plants was protected, I would try a variety of succulents, as it's a dry area all summer.
If you were thinking of trying the birdhouse option, I'd reverse the suggestion. Use the pipes vertically and score the inside so it's rough enough to climb but deep enough that the squirrels can't reach in and grab the babies.
To use as a perforated drain, I'd cover them with a good layer of landscape cloth or two, but depending on what you're trying to get to drain to where, I could definitely see that working. Stacked vertically into the ground, would they be a way of getting water to percolate deeply?

Stacked in a frame against a "too sunny" window, they'd let light in while shading from direct sun.

I will have to say that I liked the original use.  That is a great idea.  I would put them in every closet and in the mud room.  I also liked the wine rack idea.

Thank you for not sending them to a landfill.

All the ideas above are great!

If they are plastic that is not rated as UV resistant, it's possible that some of the outdoor uses, if in direct sun, could cause them to deteriorate after a year or two. We had some leftover PVC pipes, about 6 inches dia, and I used them outdoors but they started turning dark where the sun hits them in the first year, and getting little cracks last year.

The driveway stabilizing bit comes from these things. I have never liked the price on them, but love the idea.



Jay's idea of flowerbed edging interested me, as did Tracy's idea of worm towers.
And Jay is right, bird houses would be better vertically. I retract my suggestion and endorse hers :)
If you laid them spaced for french drains, you'd really need to put work into keeping out dirt, mesh, rocks, etc. If they fill up quick, they are just buried chunks of pipe :) Using them vertically to percolate water down might be more effective.


I vote you go get the rest!! Way too cool! And I second Anne's opinion "thank you for rescuing them from the landfill!"