How our team upcycles glass containers.

To minimize the use of plastic, our partners use glass as an alternative whenever they can. It’s more durable and reusable and, hey, there’s a reason it goes reduce → reuse → recycle! If you catch yourself squirrelling away glass containers without knowing what to do with them (you sure wouldn’t be the only one), our team has some ideas to help you give them a second (and third, and fourth…) life. 

Rosa reuses her jars and bottles to create an indoor garden. She’s our Community Coordinator - working closely with local charities and planning greenhouse workshops and visits. As a Lufavore of three years and counting, she’s accumulated her fair share of glass vessels.

  1. Rosa’s a fan of Ferme Vallée Verte 1912 and Laiterie Chagnon’s yogurt (and the big jars that come with). She keeps it simple, reusing the jars to store grains, dried fruit, granola, and almost any bulk item.
  2. She also enjoys MELK iced coffee (who doesn’t?) and repurposes the dark amber bottles as reusable water bottles and plant propagation containers.
  3. Another use for those MELK bottles? She added a screw-on pump (that she found at a local zero waste store) and turned a bottle into a soap dispenser. With a spray top, she turned another into a plant mister.

Pro Tip: Fill a wine bottle with water and insert it upside down in a flower pot to slowly water your plants.

Anais converts cups into crafts. She’s a Marketplace Purchaser by day and a fermentation, preservation, jamming, and candle-making pro by night.

  1. Anais uses her spare jars to store her homemade kimchi, jams, pear sauce, and even homemade tomato sauce.
  2. She transforms Riviera’s individual yogurt cups into homemade candles that she gifts to her friends. 
  3. A flower fanatic too, she uses the Foodchain and Just Pressed oat milk bottles as vases. 

Pro Tip: Donate glass containers to bulk stores or thrift shops.

Laurence equips her lunchbox, camping kit, and more. Before joining our Communications team as the Digital Communications Coordinator, Laurence worked at a recycling company, where she became a whiz at repurposing glass containers for nearly everything.

  1. A camping enthusiast, Laurence uses the small Riviera yogurt jars with their reusable lids to store her condiments, spices, and other necessities when she goes on an adventure.
  2. She fills the medium-sized glass jars from Tout Cru! or Fermes Marcello with individual lunch portions and uses them to freeze leftovers.
  3. When her collection turns her cupboards into a hazard risk, she doesn’t hesitate to recycle them. She knows that the city of Montreal recycles glass and that new methods are being developed to increase recycling capabilities.

Pro Tip: Use nail polish remover to clean off even the stickiest of glue.

If you try out our tips or have some repurposing tricks of your own, share them with your fellow Lufavores on our Facebook and Instagram pages.