There is provided a hand-held plastics bottle collapsing device (1) having an elongate body (3) with a throughbore (5) and a gripping member (7) mounted on at least one of its ends. The gripping member (7) is suitably dimensioned to releasably engage an opening of a plastics bottle. One end of the throughbore (5) is in communication with the end of the elongate body having the gripping member mounted thereon and the other end of the throughbore is in communication with the exterior of the elongate body thereby forming a fluid exhaust passageway between the bottle and the surrounding atmosphere. The device may also be provided with bottle heating means (29) to heat the plastic bottle. The plastics bottle is heated until the plastics bottle becomes malleable and thereafter the device may be used to collapse the bottle to a fraction of its former size.
