What to do with broken water butts?

Like Scrungee, I use them as rhizome barriers. I cut the bottom off and plant bamboo in them.

 

Can they not be recycled?

 

I can't quite fit it in the plastic bottle recycling container.

 

Reuse, if possible, would be "better" (more environmentally friendly) than Recycle I think?

Someone will probably tell me that using it as a Rhizome barrier, for example, has an adverse effect ... seems all such choices are very complicated these days :(

 

Yes I'm sure someone will tell you that's bad for the environment, it probably leaches ptfe chemicals or something.

It seems like getting out of bed is bad for the environment these days!

 

Cut the bottom off, fill with "used" compost and grow some giant parsnips? Well, that's what I would do!

 

Now you mention it that's exactly the sort of container they use for giant parsnips

 

A heat sink to keep a greenhouse frost free cheaply during spring and winter?

http://www.reuk.co.uk/Solar-Greenhouse-Heat-Sink.htm

 

Cracking idea. I have to say I'm very sceptical about any benefit from Solar in mid Winter ... but a nice sunny day in Autumn / Spring would allow for a lot of stored heat to be reused overnight to reduce the rate at which the greenhouse cools. Shorter nights in Autumn / Spring mean that staving off the falling temperature for just a few hours means that dawn arrives and temperatures climb again, before they had fallen to dangerous levels.