How can I reuse or recycle old jars?
Between jam, honey, olives and sticky-sticky sauces from the Chinese supermarket, we go through quite a lot of jars and it seems a shame to just recycle the glass and bin the lid.
So any suggestions about how they can be used again? I know it seems, on the face of it, quite an obvious thing to be able to reuse but you never know what other people haven’t thought of…
Oh, and it would also also be great if anyone knows any foolproof ways of
a) thoroughly degunking them (including smell, which always seems to linger on) and
b) getting the label and all the sticky off easily.
Best Suggestions
- Reuse – Practical: Even if you don’t make your own jams and pickles etc, you can still reuse cleaned jars – use them instead of plastic tubs in the fridge or to keep dried foods airtight in cupboards.
- Reuse – Creative: Use them as a teeny-tiny greenhouse/terrarium.
- Recycle: Glass jars can usually be recycled at bottle banks. Remember to take off the lid first though and recycle that separately if possible.
- See the comments below for more suggestions and ideas
i remeber the days when labeles used to come off really easily with just a bit of hot water. now i have to used WD40 and elbow grease on the blighters.
and with deisgns and logos on the lids too like in the pictrue, it’s really hard to annoymise them to use again.
Pick fruit. Make jam.
Mmmmmm… Jaaammmm…
i use cans of olives for cooking becayse thye’re cheaper but i rarely use a whole can, just like a quarter of the can at a time, so i use a clean old olive jar to keep the rest, in the fridge. i find it easier to judge hjow many i have left when they’re in a jar rather than a tupperware tub.
keep yer screws n’nails in ‘em.
store the jars *under* the shelf in the garage, by screwing the lid to the under part of the shelf.
Twist the jar on/off the lid. easy :O)
Ooh, great idea anykey. I saw someone doing this a few years ago but never got around to doing it myself. Now, two olive jars and four screws later, see how neat and tidy our fuse/battery/bits cupboard is now! see!
(sorry about the quality of the photo – it turns out it’s quite difficult to take photographs inside cupboards)
well done louisa – I like it :O)
go and make a great gift for someone who always say : i want nothing !
http://www.craftbits.com/viewProject.do?projectID=1087
My grandmother uses the Nescafe ones to keep homemade pickled onions in. Btw they taste lovely…
The best way to get a label, a sticky price tag, or any adhesive ick off of a hard surface is with acetate nail polish remover.
if you want a less toxic way to remove sticky labels that won’t budge, use a bit of baby oil – or even olive oil – with a metal scrubber
forgot to say the best way to get most labels off is to leave the jar soaking in boiling water until the paper slides off. the baby oil thing can be used for any which don’t come off in the boiling water.
i tend to soak the lids as well, and most of the smell comes out that way. i have heard you can pour hot vinegar or lemon juice into the lid, leave standing until it cools, then rinse to get rid of any lingering smells (not tried that one though).
After you’ve soaked the label off, if sticky stuff remains (glue I guess) you can rub it off with peanut butter.
You can use just the lids for a saucer for bottles that leak over your cupboard shelves, like olive oil. Means you don’t have olive oil over the bottoms of everything, don’t have to wipe the shelves all the time and you can wash the lids easily.
Organize your pantry by keeping beans and pasta in neat, matching jars. Neater and prettier than piles of plastic packages.
I make jewellery & keep all the various stones, beads etc in jars.
A pen holder, elastic bands, paperclips storage etc to keep the office tidy.
Use them to store peanuts, cashew nuts etc for cooking or eating.
Also, like my old school days, I stick paper round the jar if I fancy something looking a bit different!
I use baby food jars to store the last bit of butter on a stick, instead of having a slippery bit of butter in a crinkled piece of wax paper. I also use them to store granola because I always make a huge batch. Ditto for noodles, rice, sugar, baking soda, and pretty much anything that is an open container once you use it for the first time. It’s also great for things that are bought in bulk at the store. Prettier and stores easier than piles of bags of stuff all over the place.
You could make your own Jam’s and Chutneys. If the lid is ugly it could be covered with some twee material and an elastic band.
Or paint the Jars and put small candles inside. If you attach some old wire (maybe from a coat hanger) they would make great garden lights. The same could apply as plant pots.
They could be used as ‘Gift Jars’ paint them up and decorate imaginatively and in pops the gift!
If I am going to keep the jars, I put it in a bowl of water to soak. The label usually comes off on its own or I can use the Dobie scrub pad to get the rest off. Glass is a pretty easy surface to clean.
If you ever buy the Classico spaghetti mason jars, they are great for turning into glasses. A big glass of lemonade or cold water with ice cubes is perfect. Or you can use them as we do to make shakes in our blender. They are the same size as our blender blade unit and so you can put them right on the jar, saving you time…you don’t have to clean the blender glass and your shake is all ready to drink.
If the label just won’t come off and there is printing that won’t wash off, here in the States we have stuff called “goof off” that removes both fairly easily. I reuse glass jars -sterilized- for my homemade bathsalts and sugar scrubs. I decorate the lids with nail polish, pictures and beads and I make my own labels and glue them on. I also add a recycled spoon from the thrift shop tied on with a recycled ribbon. Great presents and I sell them too.
Soak them for hours in hot water, then use WD-40 and a toothbrush on the sticky residue. Spray-paint the lids in a bright color that corresponds to what you’re keeping in them, and write the contents on the lid in sharpie marker. You can now store:
Spices
Nuts and bolts
Marbles
Sand art
Dry beans
Home-made dips or natural aloe vera to keep in the fridge
Paint
http://www.craftideas.info/html/recycled_jar_pumpkin_b.html
Cute pumpkin decoration
Paint them with glass paint for a great decoration.
I make infused vodka with left over bottles. They are great because I can make just enough to give as a gift and try different infusing methods in the same batch because the jars are smaller that the economy size vodka we buy for these projects.
I like to put a little piece of fabric over the top of the lid tied on with a piece of ribbon and then we use stick on labels to mark the infusion date and flavor.
Fun and upcycled!