Life without plastic begins with glass

The best recycling program is you.

I started making my own peanut butter because I thought my husband might leave me if I bought and saved one more peanut butter jar. The peanut butter, olive, and honey jars occupy more space in our cabinets than our mugs and drinking glasses. Still, I nearly always have one when I need it for leftovers, storage, or even drinking.

I try to avoid single-use plastic and plastic in general, as it’s virtually unrecyclable and increasingly clearly very bad for us. Glass isn’t perfect either—it’s heavier to transport, breakable, and energy-intensive to recycle. I reconcile this by shopping for items that are paper, package-free, or, much to Skylar’s chagrin, reusing all these damn jars.

I use them to store spices, nuts, seeds, loose-leaf teas, dried peppers and mushrooms, grains, you name it! Jars are also wonderfully practical for decanting. For instance, I poured a cup of baking soda from the massive cardboard box into a smaller, baking-ready jar. Perfect.

A glass-first pantry also has the practical effect of reminding you what is in your kitchen—no more staling or oxidizing food forgotten at the back of your cupboard. Jars can also be reused for other small storage around the house, such as organizing toothbrushes or ponytail holders. A few favorite vessels have even become drinking glasses.

Some caveats

I only reuse glass jars for food storage if the original jar was used for food. For example, I would not reuse a candle holder for drinking or food storage…