There are creative ways to reuse so many items around your house, from TicTac dispensers to body oil bottles. One clever upcycler shared how they use parmesan cheese shaker lids once they are empty.
The scoop
Jennifer (@5mingardener) is a TikTok creator with more than 30,000 followers who shares gardening, grocery, and money-saving tips on their channel. In one clip, they showed followers how to reuse the tops from shaker jars like those found on parmesan cheese.
@5mingardener Click + to follow! #food #waste #package #recycle #reuse #gardenhack ♬ original sound - Jennifer
Next time you use up a whole bottle of cheese, don't toss the whole thing in recycling. Jennifer demonstrates how these tops fit perfectly on many glass jars. They explain that they use these new containers featuring a shakable top for things all around their home. The examples they list include powdered sugar, diatomaceous earth, and wildflower seeds.
This is a simple hack that can go a long way. They also explained in the comments that while they prefer to move the top to a glass jar, you can also save the whole container to use for similar purposes.
How it's helping
Tips like this are a great way to reduce your waste and save money on specialized items. Plastic waste is a massive problem for our planet, with garbage making its way into ecosystems and waterways all over the world.
The EPA reported, "Plastics are a rapidly growing segment of municipal solid waste…the containers and packaging category had the most plastic tonnage at over 14.5 million tons in 2018."
It may feel small, but every drop in the bucket contributes to overall waste reduction. And while there is a long way to go, it's worth the effort. Right now, only about 9% of plastic is actually recycled globally, according to a report published in Science Advances.
However, certain places have seen huge success stories. Countries like South Korea have made great strides with their recycling programs. The New York Times reported, "Its recycling and composting rate is 60 percent, one of the highest in the world, according to the World Bank."
What everyone's saying
Folks in the comments were excited to give this tip a whirl.
"Great trick," wrote one person.
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Giving me money back 💰 Someone else shared how they make use of other types of containers: "Keep those caps and the big seasonings caps and bottles. you can keep cinnamon, salt, baking soda, etc."
Another person added, "Awesome!"
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