There is a certain beauty in an empty glass jar. So unbroken and well-manufactured, it is a symbol of potential.
Taking the last sips from a bottle of wine or finishing off a jar of pasta sauce invokes, in some, the urge to clean and repurpose the glass vessels. One TikToker who understands the value of a grocery store pasta sauce jar shared how she repurposes it.
The scoop
TikTok user Jaci Bri (@jaci.bri) turns her glass pasta sauce jars into travel coffee cups.
“Save your pasta jars and use them for iced coffee cups,” Jaci Bri said, showing off her DIY cup.
To make her cup, all the TikTok user did was clean the sauce jar, make an indent in the lid with a hammer and nail, drill a hole in the indent, and pop in a straw.
How it’s helping
Reusing glass grocery containers as cups, vases, plant propagation pots, storage containers, and more not only gives usable items a second life but also saves consumers money in the process.
Glass travel coffee cups sell for at least $10 on Amazon, but Jaci Bri’s cups, all six of them, were virtually free.
Sure, she spent money on the sauce, but she also gained bonus dishes simply by drilling a hole in the lid of the container from whence it came.
In reusing glass jars, consumers like Jaci Bri also keep glass out of landfills. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, most glass solid waste is drink bottles, liquor and wine bottles, and jars previously used for food and cosmetics.
In 2018, the EPA reported, approximately 7.6 million tons of glass ended up in landfills, about 5.2% of all waste sent to landfills that year.
The millions of tons of glass waste that end up in landfills each year, however, can likely be reused.
According to Potomac eCycle, landfills are filling up. When landfills overflow, new waste sites must be created, which takes land from animals and increases the concentration of environmentally dangerous gases released from landfills.
Reusing glass jars can offset this troubling phenomenon.
What everyone’s saying
Commenters on Jaci Bri’s TikTok showed interest in copying the hack.
“Wait,” one said, “why isn’t this viral? This is genius.”
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