How can I reuse or recycle Tabasco sauce bottles?

Tabasco sauce bottleRhiannon left a message on our suggestions page:

I was wondering if you have any ideas for an empty Tabasco sauce bottle? They are so pretty, but due to the very narrow neck (so that you can only shake out small droplets at a time) it is unsuitable for storing anything that I can think of.

We’ve covered narrow-necked glass bottles on here before – beer bottles or wine bottles and the like, but Tabasco sauce bottles are that bit narrower than most.

I’ve seen the teeny-tiny single serve Tabasco sauce bottle used as jewellery but the normal size bottles are a little too big for that. ;)

They might be useful for liquids that need to be added drop-by-drop – food colouring for example, but that type of thing tends to come in a little bottle with a dropper thing anyway.

The largest standard size (150ml ish?) bottle would make a cute single-stem vase (if I recall correctly, they tend to have a plastic dropper thing in the top but that can usually be pulled out) but the standard size bottle would be too small for everything bar the absolutely thinnest stem.

So suggestions?

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34 Responses to “How can I reuse or recycle Tabasco sauce bottles?”


  1. Trish says:

    I’ve seen them turned into salt and pepper shakers. If you remove the inner plastic thing, and poke holes in the cap.

  2. Agata says:

    Store olive oil in it,you will be able to measure it correctly

  3. Sarah Landry says:

    I have seen people use them to hold their toothpicks. It when you turn it upside down to get one out, it only releases one at a time.

  4. Mike Cataldo says:

    I have one of those at home and you’re right, it is a pretty bottle. I wonder how useful it would be to distribute just the right amount of balsamic vinegar.

  5. Lizzy says:

    Come to think of it…I don’t think I’ve ever had tabasco sauce….How odd…Are the bottles of the sort that you could fill them with water , turn them upside down, and put into the soil in a plant pot, so as to water the plants slowly over a period of days, when you’re away for a weekend etc. It may work better with some cotton wool in the top, or scrunched up newspaper.
    Hope this helps :)

  6. alexis says:

    if you use essential oils, lavender oil for example, you know how strong they can be. tabasco sauce bottles could allow just the amount needed, only a few drops.

  7. Jancylle says:

    Well, I was always told that as a married couple, if you ever needed to buy a second bottle of Tabasco sauce, your marriage was solid for the next 10 years! :) Maybe use the first one cleaned as an anniversary gift to your spouse with a miniature copy of your wedding certificate rolled up tight inside, like a “message” bottle accompanied with a new one, unopened!

  8. Tânia (Portugal) says:

    I have painted a few in different matching colours and used them to put one or two flowers (depending on the size of the flower) in each one and decorated my living room.
    I recently tried the napkin decoupage technique on one! Really pretty! You can try with other sizes of bottles (for example the ones of liquid caramel or tomato sauce) and play with the shapes!

  9. Cynthia says:

    While I was browsing a few months back I came across a little project someone had came up with using tabasco bottles. They turned them into tiny terrariums!

    http://www.stormthecastle.com/terrarium/tabasco-bottle-terrarium.htm

    There is the link if you are curious! :)

  10. Codrin says:

    You could build an oil lamp.
    Here’s how: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKw6_F6q5qo
    Use used cooking oil as fuel to reuse even further.

  11. sherry says:

    Get some aquarium airline tubing then cut off a 2 or 3 inch section of it and insert one end into the tobasco bottle. Hang it up . You now have a hummingbird feeder! Decorate it with something red but make sure this is removable. So how do you clean the bottle with such a tiny opening?
    I have several of them & the EASY way is to boil them in a small pot of water which gets rid of any sugar crystals that have formed while also
    disinfecting the bottles. Several in a cluster looks really neat and because they are glass instead of plastic it is healthier for the birds.
    I fill them with the sugar water using a syringe (no needle!) I got from my vet. P.S. The tubing comes in a “micro” size to fit the small bottles.

  12. sherry says:

    If you like Disney themed stuff— thoroughly clean one of the 2 oz. size
    bottles and after it dries fill it with gold glitter. Make a label for the bottle which says: “Pixie Dust”. As everyone’s favorite fairy says: “All you need is a little of this stuff, and one happy thought , and if you really believe, you can fly!” Set it on your desk at work and hope to heck you don’t need to use it too often. “Second star on the left, then straight on ’till morning…….”

  13. sherry says:

    Clean and dry two of the small bottles and fill one halfway with salt. Next, use crazy glue or epoxy to glue them together to form an old fashioned hourglass (make sure the salt can move freely between them).
    On slips of paper write “categories”, like; Trees, Birds, Insects, Animals.
    After a category is chosen each player writes three words from it on a paper. Example: category; Trees……Walnut, Birch, Maple. After all the players write their three words on the paper the hourglass is turned over and the game starts. Using the total of all the words submitted by all the players see how many words you can make using the letters of these words. When the salt stops falling the game is over and the player who has come up with the most words wins.

  14. sherry says:

    Every year in Reno NV there is a special festival called Hot August Nights.
    For the better part of a week people celebrate all things from the 1950’s.
    The cars, the music, the dances, the clothes, etc.. This is really fun for us oldsters who were in our teens back then. Yes, we were all young once! One of my favorite songs from that era is “Love Potion #9”. Every year I wear my bottle of LP#9 (O.K. I confess, it’s actually a recycled small tabasco bottle on a cord for a necklace and to go with it I made a pair of matching red post earrings out of two more of the little red caps.) When people see it they smile and always ask me if I’ve kissed any cops lately. (That’s an issue in the song.)

  15. sherry says:

    If you work in a restaurant, or know someone who does, and you can get a lot of the Tobasco bottles here’s what you could do: Fill half of them with something dark, and the other ones with something light.
    Next, get a hot glue gun and get to embellishing them to make a really cool looking custom CHESS SET.

    • Laurin says:

      Great idea!! My husband has a collection of at LEAST 100 of these bottles, so a chess set would be no prob. He likes chess, too! Hm… Christmas present?? :D

  16. sherry says:

    Make a Chakra array: Fill them with 7 different colors of water: Red, Purple, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Clear, and glue a clear marble on top of each one. Line them up on the coffee table or wherever & enjoy some color therapy for relieving stress and look at them to give your eyes a break from the monotony of a computer screen.

  17. sherry says:

    They are perfect for taking 2 oz. of your favorite mouthwash with you along with your lunch. I am particularly fond of tuna salad loaded with chopped purple onions. I never have stinky breath after lunch thanks to this little trick.

  18. sherry says:

    All the Docs are always telling us to; “Get more Fiber!”…..”Find a way to add it to your food!”…….”Somehow, sneak it in there!”……Here’s my secret; I fill a small tabasco bottle with psyllium husk (pure fiber!) and carry it in my purse. I put it on everything I eat no matter what that is;
    soup, salad, my sandwiches you name it. What else you might want to add to all your food; wheat germ, oat bran, ground flax seeds…enjoy!

  19. sherry says:

    How to start a fire….Get a wooden picture frame at one of those dollar stores. Write: “HOT STUFF” across the top of the frame and put your picture in there. Next, glue a small tabasco bottle on one side of the frame (don’t wash the label off of it) and glue a lighter on the other side of the frame. Give it to someone special and wait for flames.

  20. Alice says:

    Grow your own chillis, make your own tobasco sauce, and refill that bottle!

  21. William Potter says:

    You have all overlooked the obvious!

    Empty Tabasco bottles (especially the green ones) are used for decanting aftershaves and Witch Hazel for facial treatments after shaving.
    The bottles are the perfect size and look much better than the plastic bottles many products come in.
    Wp

  22. John says:

    We are wine makers, for a few years we have been saving Austraian Wine screw cap bottles, thinking they would work wonderfully for bottling our homemade wines. The bottle caps are 28MM Austraian Wine bottle “Black Opal” brand , we can not find the caps that fit these bottles can anyone tell us where to purchase the screw caps for these bottles. They are different than the normal screw caps that can be purchased in wine supply stores. Thank you

  23. Kevin says:

    Lots of people collect shot glasses or spoons. My mom collects mugs, and hopes to have 1 from each of the 50 states. I collect sand – from everywhere I’ve been. I store the sand in miniature Tabasco bottles – they are single serving size and come in the Military MRE (Meal Ready to Eat). They are perfect, as they display the color of the sand and are not overly large.

  24. Judi says:

    I reuse them by making corsages and boutonnieres for brides and grooms for bridal showers and/or parties. I usually use full mini bottles and use 4 for the bride’s and three for the groom’s.

  25. Horsegirl says:

    once i saw a tiny one with stuff glued on that looked like a tiny person. very cute.

  26. Jen says:

    My dad puts tooth picks in them…cute

  27. Claudette says:

    We are a foundation in The Gambia, West Africa. I am Dutch and here since 20 years. Some 70 women /families obtain an income due to our foundation activities and processing. We process natural, organic and sustainable products. Dairy, consumables and cosmetics. For our Hand pressed Virgin Coconut oil, we used a lot of the Tabasco sauce bottles ( we got them from a supermarket as the sauce expired). We do not know where to find them. Our customers love them.
    I would know how to get them here but how will I get them collected in UK? Any one willing to help? Sunny regards from a healthy Gambia

  28. Maggie says:

    I have large, small, medium Tabasco bottles. We love it, using it on everything from popcorn to vanilla ice cream. I want to keep the colorful labels on the bottles and have thought about somehow lighting them, making wind chimes, framed collage. I’d like ideas.

  29. Diana says:

    Recently I’ve been into a lot of DIY projects, especially those that involve Halloween. I wanted to focus on a theme this year and it’s be a witches homes, something similar to Harry Potter. So I’ve been hoarding glass bottles, especially those of clear small Tabasco bottles and glass candle containers to turn into potion bottles. I printed out potions labels into stickers to put on the them and fill them assorted of stuff. Like one bottle I filled it with blue water (just using water and blue food dye) and it’s label as Wolfsbane. Another is an old heart-shaped bottle that use to be rocksalt. I turned that into potion bottle as well, making it Deadman’s Blood and so on.

    I also have a friend that’s a wiccan and she’s into making a lot of natural things and homemade remedies. She absolutely love the idea of recycling those bottles and she used them for something much more authentic. Like using one bottle for a perfume — rosewater, another for a toner, storing crushed rose petals and other flowers for other uses, etc.

  30. Hansrudolf says:

    i took samples of sand from every beach i’ve been all over the world. at home i fill the sand into these nice tabasco bottles. i got 18 samples up to now. recently i got samples from other people and i have now the problem to get bottles empty!

  31. Shlomo Van Nostren says:

    Just bite it off with your teeth. Took me less time than reading this article.



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