Would reused packaging put you off a food item or draw you in?

[preserving]

Wa product with single use packaging or that is newould you buy jam in jars (not lids) that have been reused (washed and sterilised) and drinks such as apple juice in glass bottles (again, not lids) that have been washed and sterilised?
Also flavoured salts/ oils/ gin/ dried herbs etc in glass jars that have been saved from landfil and washed/ sterilised?

Yabu- this would put me off, I want brand new packaging for food/ drinks

Yanbu- the market needs to shift into REUSED packaging and this change would make me choose this company/ product over a product with single use/ brand new packaging/ recycled or partly recycled packaging.

it's quite upsetting being 'too poor to be ethical'. Free range eggs cost more, organic costs more, local business's cost more, plastic free packaging costs more.
You’re looking at it wrong. The price for free range, organic, ethical is the normal price. Stuff that is cheaper is artificially cheap, because someone somewhere is paying the price instead of the customer. The chicken is paying the price for caged eggs, kids in sweat shops are paying the price for cheap clothes, the planet is paying the price for transporting food thousands of miles. And people keep buying it because they don’t care who is paying the price as long as it’s not them.

Nothing to do with fear. It’s just grim.

I can’t stand all this environmental bullshit at the best of times but this takes the piss.

I voted YNBU but think you may want to address the cost question, I fixed it below

Yanbu- the market needs to shift into REUSED packaging and this change would make me choose this company/ product over a product with single use/ brand new packaging/ recycled or partly recycled packaging. IF IT DOESN'T COST MORE

Oh so I'm not a genius, just an old soul at heart.

No I know I agree, I can see how it would ever make sense to stop reusing. I mean at some point we will overload the systems if they aren't overloaded already.

Whats the price range you would expect for a jar of homemade (home grown ingredients too)
-jam
-sauces like ketchup and brown sauce
-pickles (using home made vinegar)
-oils/ salts
-dried herbs
-fruit juices

in sainsburies they cost sometimes £2-3 for something I'd spend maybe 80p- £1

If the allure is all organic, home made with local produce?

I'd love to start an eco friendly business but it's the business part that puts me off. I love preserving the harvest and watch hours of the US canning videos. one can only dream

so you'd 'love to start a business but the business part puts you off'? Care to elaborate?

Home grown ingredients would make it a small-scale seasonal hobby. You’re only going to have access to tomatoes etc for a couple of months per year, and home grown costs a LOT more than buying the same fruit and veg from the shop.

@weRone sorry that was to you?
what costs are acceptable?
and would you go to an independent over a supermarket or do you want this stuff in supermarkets?

I'm finding it fascinating how many people are interested but cost is a big factor.
for a treat (every few years kind of treat) we buy apple juice from a local farmer at a market and Its delicious. BUT its £4 for a litre bottle. That's so expensive , but its so delicious I can't stand supermarket version's anymore. they take of nothing compared.
I'd love to have a bottle every week but I couldn't pay £4 for it all the time. If it was £2 I'd buy it all the time, and if it was at a supermarket, because I can't afford much else at that market and getting there just for apple juice is a pain. Also its only open once every month so if you miss it you miss it. I guess it's not convenient.

What do you do about trace allergens if the jars have previously been used for something else?

I think it's sensible but probably only works for a cottage industry business?

IMO the whole recycling idea has been a disaster, resulting in far more packaging when we should have been reusing and reducing all along.

This is not a new concept. Milk delivered in returnable glass bottles ( I hear the traditional milkman is making a comeback 😉) I remember the days when all pop was in glass bottles and yoi took your empties and got your deposit back. My mum and surrounding neighbours used to save glass jars for church who had ladies who made jam.
Mountains of plastic bottles scarring the environment and polluting the sea were unheard of.

Have a look at the scheme being introduced in Scotland later this year and all the potential issues with that. Think it's specifically for drinks but probably similar to what you are talking about.

The business side put me off. I like making the stuff and I make way more than my family (and extended family and friends) could ever need. and I enjoy it.
I live researching new recipes when we get a glut of one food and I need to get rid of 10 kg of tomatoes quick!
BUT the idea of having to maintain a website (I'm not computer skilled at all. mumsnet is my lot) and having a business account or business rates (still don't know what they are) and certificates for safety and hygiene. puts me off. that's the boring part.

You wouldn't buy milk on glass bottles from the milkman?

Why is a jam jar made from recycled glass less grim than reusing the jar?

Do you think "new" bottles are created in a completely sterile environment before lovingly being filled with product and polished up?

Don't be stupid. As long as the container is clean who cares whether it's been used before

I agree, there are countless documentaries about how recycling is mainly shipping our rubbish overseas and its just sat there, not being recycled because we produce too much. Certainly we produce too much to be sorted out here in the UK.
So the carbon footprint of recycling a plastic bottle (which can only be down cycled before it's fit for the bin) is way higher than you think and it's actually not even really eco friendly at all.

i have a couple of jars my nan saved for me about 8 years ago, and so thats 8x (plus the original jam that came with it) and the lids give out way quicker than the glass.

My sister uses glass jars for her salads as the jar is less likely to open than her lunchbox (which spilled out hence the switch)
I use lots for storing bits and bobs in the kitchen too.

What do you do about trace allergens if the jars have previously been used for something else?

You properly wash it and sanitise. Like you would do with cutlery and crockery in restaurants etc

I get my milk delivered in bottles, and I remember taking pop bottles back for 5p.

So, all good to me.

But I think it would be completely impractical to reuse random bottles and jars. It needs to be the same product so that it fits the factory processes.

Not understanding why one poster thinks it's grim.

ew I remember seeing something about rats in warehouses so don't drink from a can without wiping it down first.
also saw a child suck a can of Pepsi before his mother wiped it on her jeans and put it back in the shelf. that was grim!
I promise not to let children lick my jam jars!

With regards to allergens.
I'm an allergy free family so whatever, doesn't matter to me, at all. But you sterilise the jars/ bottles before use or else the will mould up in storage for the year. that means boiling them and then drying them in the oven on 180° for 10 mins, before filling them up, so I don't know if anything could survive.

@angelopal I'm googling now

As already outlined, this isn’t an environmentally-friendly or financially-viable solution.

Glass is heavy. Therefore, it costs more to transport. Humans who carry the loads can carry less coke in the same time so the human cost is higher. Increased weight in transport vehicles means they use a lot more fuel so fuel costs are higher. Also, increased weight in transport vehicles means they use a lot more fuel so they’re worse for the environment. The box packaging needs to be stronger to hold the extra weight so that is greater waste too.

Glass is delicate. Therefore, lots of it gets broken and there’s a lot of wastage. That means that, for each litre of coke purchased, more money/fuel/coke/glass is wasted than using less delicate vessels like cans or plastic bottles. That additional waste is bad for the environment and pushes the price up. The box packaging needs to be more protective and so that’s additional cost and additional waste too.

So, your suggestion is not good for the environment and is not affordable for the vast majority of people. If it were either of those things then the company’s would be doing it - there’s a reason that they aren’t.

It does work elsewhere tho

All things being equal, glass is better for the environment than plastic, assuming similar levels of recycling and reuse.

The reasons companies prefer plastic to glass is purely down to cost.

Would be good. As pp says, used to happen with glass milk bottles - also remember you got 5p back (or similar) for corona pop bottles (also with milkman).

Our local farm shop charges £3.50 for homemade jam but it's just way too expensive to justify.

@Nimbostratus100

i really don't think they do. Many use recycled, which is not the same. If you know if any companies that use reused could you link to them?