When you start with your lower waste or sustainable lifestyle, you will start to notice how many glass jars you begin to accumulate. One of the basics of sustainable living is buying products that are packed in eco-friendlier packaging. Instead of buying your jam in a plastic container, you’ll find yourself choosing the one in a glass jar. At some point, you will be surprised how many jars are stocked under your sink, in the garage, or even in the recycling bin. So how to recycle glass jars? The easiest way would be to send them to the recycling centre or donate them to junkyards or people who specifically have a use for them.
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I don’t give away many of my used glass jars. I found so many uses for them. For the ones I don’t use at all or cannot think of a way to reuse, I donate or give them away. In this article, I will show you how you can recycle our glass jars beyond putting them in the recycle bin
What’s the Problem with Glass Jars?
Even though glass jars are a great step up from plastic containers, they don’t come without problems. Let’s discuss below the problems that make glass jars challenging to recycle.
You need to remove the stickers or label
Sticker labels on glass jars can really be annoying. I love those that slip off right after you get them under the hot water. However, most don’t do that. I’ve tried everything. Soaking them in warm water with soap but that didn’t work. I tried rubbing alcohol and even with vodka but still no luck. The best option I found was soaking with vinegar. However, if you can’t get the adhesive off, the jars have ugly adhesive residue, which is still sticky and which looks plain ugly. If you can’t get the stickiness off you can always buy glass jars where you don’t need to deal with removing labels or stickers.
The size of used glass jars
When you want to recycle glass jars and plan to use them around the house, you want them to be the same size. If you buy the same pasta sauce brand, you will get the same size of glass jars. Let’s say you want to use the glass jars as a pencil holder in your home office. You also want to separate ink pens, markers, and pencils, and even then separate them by colours. It could just be my desire for neatness, but I prefer the jars to all be uniform!
The smell of the previous contents.
The smell is some jars are just hard to remove. You would think smells don’t stick the way they do in plastic containers. However, they usually come from the lid which is either made of metal or even plastic at times. You’ll find the smell is strongest from a jar of pickled vegetables for instance. And that can seriously impact what else you store in it.
However, if you soak the lid in water with vinegar and baking soda overnight, then scrub them the next day. Then, do it again, soak the lid with soap and water overnight. This should remove most of the smell.
How to recycle glass jars: 7 Ideas for Recycling Glass Jars
Right. So we don’t want to recycle the jars traditionally, by putting them in our recycle bin. You definitely don’t want to throw them away. Let’s take a look at what the options are for recycling glass jars.
Use glass jars for your own jams and chutneys
Absolutely the best idea. Save your jars up. Sterilize them properly (see below) and then when you have an excess of tomatoes, courgettes or even onions you can turn them into chutney’s, relishes, or even a sour plum tkemali
Use glass jars as a drinking glass
This is probably one of my favourite ways to upcycle glass jars. But of course, it depends on the size and shape. I usually keep a rounded glass jar with at least 300ml capacity.
Giveaway old glass jars to art & craft clubs
If you line in an area where there are art & craft clubs or near a school or retirement home, these places always need glass jars for their activities. Glass jars are expensive, so getting them for free, these places will never say no.
Reuse glass jars for the spice rack
This is one of my favourite ways to recycle glass jars. They make my spice rack much prettier and keep the spices (especially powder) safe from humidity. Usually, spices from grocery stores come in plastic packets or their own plastic bottles. Recycled glass jars will really help you transform your kitchen corner.
First, you need to choose glass jars of the same size. If you’re a fan of shop-bought jam, then go for the smaller jars, as those are the best sizes for spice containers, they are not too big or too small. Once you have enough, wash the jars with warm water and mild soap together with their lids.
You can sterilize your jars. To do this I heat the oven to 160 degrees and place the jars inside the oven for 15 minutes. Your lids can be sterilized by boiling them in water on the stovetop for 10 minutes. There’s more on sterilizing jars here.
Next, dry them properly. You don’t want to have any water residue as it will make the spices stick together. You can either use a label maker or stickers to add labels to the container, if you’d rather not, simply use a permanent marker. Finally, transfer all your spices to the brand-new recycled container.
Use recycled glass jars as mini vases
This will depend on the size of the glass jar and if you can remove the label. You want something tall enough to keep the flower from falling on the sides but wide enough so you can place plenty of stems.
Make a cable organiser out of recycled glass jars
Is there more annoying than cables? It’s the most useful yet hardest to organise for so many reasons. They come in different types and different purposes making them exhausting to categorise. But recently, I found a way to deal with this using glass jars.
I already use elastic bands to keep the cable rounded and tied up but always find myself looking for a longer time than needed before finding the one kind I need.
Now, we can turn your unused glass jars into a cable organiser. First-round up your cables, and tie them in a circular shape. Separate them according to their purpose – mini USB (data transfer), USB-C, iPhone charger, camera chargers, mini USB charger, and so on.
Place the cables in each jar and write a label outside the jar. Make sure to test each cable before placing it inside the jar, a great way to separate things that no longer work. Finally, use the lid to keep the dust away.
Make garage containers out of recycled glass jars
Used batteries, and dozens of screws, they all can be organised in separate glass jars of their own. I know the dilemma of garage items where you don’t know if they can be thrown away or must be kept.
For example, when you buy a self-assembly bookshelf, you can see you have the exact amount of screws to use. But in the end, you always end up with a few extras. You don’t really want to throw them in case you need to fix this specific bookshelf in the future. Usually, the screws they come with are so unique you can’t buy them anywhere else. It’s a great space saver to screw the lids to the bottom of a shelf and then tighten up the jar so that it uses the bottom of the shelf as storage.
Other things you to use your glass jars:
- Use for seeds for future growing seasons (but remember to keep them in a dark cool place too!)
- loose change
- pen holders
- chopstick holder
- toothbrush holder
- medicine
- pasta containers
- seeds for cooking
- food container for the fridge
If you’re like us and want to use more environmentally friendly tools in your home and garden, then we have you covered. Here are some of our top tips.
- The best eco dish sponges and scrubbers
- Eco-friendly dishcloths and tea towels
- Which is best for food storage? Glass or Plastic?
- Which is better? Plastic or Silicone?
- The Best Plastic-Free Freezer Storage Guide.
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Final Words on Recycling Glass Jars
This is the advantage of choosing glass material versus plastic. It’s much easier to recycle products that are made of glass than plastic. Glass also lasts a long time and remains of high quality even after years of using them. In the long run, it’s much cheaper to buy products in a glass container and it’s much eco-friendlier and sustainable. A perfect material if you are looking to live a more sustainable and greener lifestyle.
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