In the world of sustainable living, a unique trend has emerged: jar collecting. What started as a simple way to reduce waste has turned into a full-blown hobby for many. Artists, content creators, and environmental enthusiasts alike are finding creative ways to repurpose glass containers, turning them into everything from food storage solutions to decorative pieces.
The phenomenon gained traction when Jess Lynch, an artist from Toronto, shared her love for reusing jars on a popular social audio platform. Her enthusiasm resonated with many, sparking a community of like-minded individuals who appreciate the versatility and charm of glass jars.
The Appeal of Glass Jars
For many, the appeal of glass jars lies in their versatility and durability. Lynch, known among her friends for her collection of jars, has specific criteria for the containers she keeps. “It’s gotta be a solid mason jar,” she said. “It’s gotta have a lid.” Other important qualities include a good seal, being watertight, completely see-through, and free from sticky labels. If a jar doesn’t meet her standards, it goes straight to recycling.
Lynch’s love for reusing jars extends beyond practicality. “I love reusing,” she told Vox Culture. “Why would I go to the dollar store and buy to-go cups that have to go in the garbage when I could take my little pasta sauce jar that I picked out from dinner last night [and] fill it up with a little savvy B?” This sentiment echoes the feelings of many who see the potential in everyday objects.
The Community of Jar Collectors
The community of jar collectors is vast and diverse. According to an EcoFocus survey commissioned by the Glass Packaging Institute (GPI), more than half of American grocery shoppers reuse their glass containers. Nineteen percent reuse them for food storage, 14 percent repurpose them for tasks such as organizing and crafting, and another 20 percent reuse them and then recycle them later. About 30 percent choose to recycle them immediately after use.
Monica Chavez, the content creator behind House of Esperanza, has been saving jars since she was a kid. “I come from very humble beginnings,” she told Vox. “We didn’t have much growing up, so repurposing, recycling, and finding a use for everything was critically important.” This mindset has stayed with her, driving her to find new uses for old containers. “Yeah, this is a cute jar, I am going to get the most out of it,” she said. “It’s that human need to make use of the things you spend your money on.”
Chavez goes out of her way to acquire the right containers. She finds that the jar for the Rao’s sauce sold at Costco is a more useful shape than the one at grocery stores. She’ll even pay a little bit more if it means she can hold onto the vessel. For example, she buys Oui yogurt, which comes in glass jars with a foil top. “I bought a set of bamboo lids and now I repurpose those,” she said, adding that the jars can store overnight oats, salsa, or other food, or be used by her daughter when she’s watercoloring.
The Environmental Impact of Reusing Jars
While reusing jars falls under the dictionary definition of “reuse,” its environmental impact is not as significant as one might think. Paul Ferraro, a Johns Hopkins University professor who studies human behavior and public policy, said that this kind of “consumerism-sided decision-making has very little effect on the environment, positively or negatively.” Ferraro gets the impulse but emphasizes that individual choices such as plastic versus glass or paper versus plastic “do not matter in a meaningful way compared to collective changes in how we manage our environment.”
Ferraro suggests that if reusing jars you already have keeps you from buying a slew of Tupperware online, it’s a good thing. However, if the hunger to acquire new and better reusable vessels has you ordering glass containers from e-commerce sites and getting them shipped overnight, you might be canceling out any of that good when you account for packaging, emissions, and manufacturing.
So, if you’re torturing yourself by holding onto containers you’ll never use for the sake of Mother Earth, release your chains and toss them in the recycling bin. But for many collectors, it’s not about that. Lynch said that she thinks of the spirit of her grandmother whenever she puts something from her jar collection to good purpose. “Every time I find a new use for something that I have hung onto for a while, I feel vindicated,” she said. “Like, oh, I knew there was a reason I was keeping this.”
