Home cooks share incredible variety of ways to reuse empty glass jars: 'Creative'

A home cook got some fresh inspiration from the Reddit community on what to do with empty glass jars that they couldn't recycle in their town.

Posting on the r/ZeroWaste subreddit, they noted that they already use them to store excess cooking fat and use mason jars for drinking glasses and dry goods storage.

With that in mind, they looked to emulate other Redditors in "the creative ways you reuse your jars!"

The community delivered with some clever and resourceful suggestions. 

"I drill a hole in the bottom with a diamond drill bit and turn them into plant pots for giving away my seemingly endless supply of baby spider plants," one commenter revealed in a hack that drew raves.

Others suggested using them to regrow scallions and other plants.

"I post any I can't use on Craigslist or marketplace and someone who likes to can usually contact me within an hour," another Redditor revealed, in a move that could garner some extra income.

"A nice present is to make recipe mixes in them and give them out at holidays," another commenter added.

All of these ideas can do an admirable job in keeping the glass out of a methane-producing landfill that contributes to the warming of the planet. 

When it comes to glass, only a third of it in the U.S. gets recycled despite it being completely recyclable. That falls well short of rates in areas such as Europe. This is due to frustrating gaps in glass recycling, like in the original poster's case. 

What would you think if someone gifted you a repurposed food jar? I would love it! 🥰 Depends on what it's repurposed into 🤔 I would appreciate the thought 🙂 No thanks! 😒 Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.

While the glass that ends up in a landfill won't directly leak chemicals or pollute, it takes up a lot of space indefinitely and can pose a safety hazard for wildlife and workers, according to Environment+Energy Leader.

For that reason, the OP's initiative to find new purposes for the glass is admirable. One other popular idea was to use them to store leftovers in the fridge or freezer.

One Redditor expressed concern about freezer use in particular and asked: "Is there any risk of glass breaking in the freezer?"

Fortunately, other Redditors assured them there wasn't, as long as they were careful in the practice.

"It never happened to me in I don't know how many years," a user shared. "I always leave a fair amount of place for water to expand."

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