To Recycle or Reuse – Earth Day, 2021

April 22, 2021

I’m always looking for ways to make better, more conscious and eco-friendly decisions for my products – especially since I rely on a healthy growing environment to make everything I sell!

It was not an easy decision for me to go to plastic for my body scrubs, but I didn’t want anyone to go through what I did. I used to make all my products in Mason jars. As someone that has always “put up” food, canning jars are something that has always been in my house and are repurposed for drink glasses, packing lunches, storing and organizing things. But one time my scrub slipped out of my hand and shattered on my tile shower floor sending shards of glass everywhere. It was nightmare and I ended up with little cuts all over my lower legs and feet. I’m just glad it happened to me and not someone else!

So, yes, plastic is the way to go for safety but what about my mother Earth??!! For health reasons, I cannot reuse the containers for scrubs a second time, however, I found out they were useful for many other things around the house. They typically don’t do well in the dishwasher so I recommend washing them out with super hot soapy water and the labeling I use now will come off quite easily – leaving you with a durable useful container!

For a while I was content to use them for organizing little things that need their own special space – things like hair clips, office supplies, my charms and ribbons I use for my products, etc. Then I moved on to using them to scoop out dog food, packing snacks to take on the road (the plastic I use is food grade), and meal prep.

Then I saw this idea on Pinterest about how to decorate jars to reuse them for other fun things like a gift box or a planter, so I had to share this project with to celebrate our 51st Earth Day!

Here’s what you need:

One of our empty and clean body scrub 12 oz plastic jars
Some jute, I used natural and colored jute, I love Rock Mountain products from Denver, Colorado
Some non toxic glue that works on plastic/glass and fibers
A toothpick, some scissors and your imagination

For a really good tutorial and some inspiration, check out this YouTube video. Why redo something that has already been done right the first time!!

Now you can check out my work below! I did this all in under 30 minutes. Next time I would round the jute to the top of the container but I wasn’t sure where I was going with this one!!

I trimmed a piece off of a succulent plant, put a few rocks in the bottom for drainage, added some potting soil and stuck the plant in there.

Have fun and sometimes it’s better to reuse and repurpose things rather than tossing them in your recycle can and hoping they don’t end up in a landfill. Oh, and the toothpick came in handy to separate or press the jute strands together.