Thursday, April 1, 2010

Reuse or Recycle


One of our favorite household phrases is: reuse or recycle! From paper to plastic to glass, we do whatever we can to reuse or recycle items we might have simply discarded years ago. Whenever I finish burning a Yankee Candle® jar candle, I either include it with my glass recyclables or find another use for it. My daughter and I have so much fun to trying to find ways to reinvent our empty jars for a different use. They make great vessels for small collections such as seashells, fairy stones, stickers, and coins. They are useful storage containers for the kitchen (tea bags), bathroom (cotton balls), garage (nuts and washers), office (business cards) and craft area (buttons). I’ve known people (like Yankee Candle Facebook fan PrinceAss Bea) to use their empty jars to store smaller candles such as tea lights. Here’s an idea: fill one with small treasures from a special trip or period of time and it becomes a time capsule you can give as a gift. The ideas are really limitless. I love this photo contributed by Marilyn Stlouis, one of the loyal fans of the Yankee Candle Facebook Page. Her shell collections look like little jars of seaside memories!

2 comments:

  1. How do you clean out the jars? I would love to reuse them but do not know how to get all the wax out.

    Should they really be put into recycling since they are not beverage containers? I don't think so!

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  2. Hello!
    For your second question, it depends upon your own recycling program. In my community they do accept these as recyclable. In other community recycling programs they may not.
    For your first question, you can do a number of different things. After your last burn, while the wax is still a bit soft you can scoop out the remaining wax and discard it. If the wax has hardened, you can put the jar into the freezer for a bit to freeze the wax and then pop it out. The metal base should come unglued with a bit of goo gone or by soaking it in rubbing alcohol or nail polish remover. Once you have the wax out and the base out you can either wash it in the sink or dish washer to remove any residual soot.
    Hope that helps! Thanks for reading!!

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