I look around at single use items that I’ve reused for many years and wonder if we can design containers to be multi use from the start. There’s no reason glass jars can’t be glasses, measuring cups, etc.
@davidho I hope you haven't used that toothbrush for many years.
@davidho I was just commenting on this at home. Many foods come in extremely durable plastic bags with zip seals now - I reuse those until they tear for cold goods, smelly used animal bedding until trash day, etc, but there’s a limit on how many you need and they last much longer than the replacement life of their contents even if consumed sparingly. A lot of product packaging needs to simply be returnable for reuse for the same product. And we need a lot more bulk stores.
@davidho I am loving seeing everyone's jars! In my family the coveted ones are big 1kg peanut butter jars for storing pantry items. Same as this redditor:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ZeroWaste/comments/gxxrjf/adams_peanut_butter_jars_make_perfect_storage/
@davidho I have some not so elegant and some a little more. The second set are ceramic yogurt pots that became coffee cups. I also have 2 as make-root-grow plant pots on the main table, one contains fine sugar, one contains vinegar for the clothes washing machine (goodbye synthetic softeners!), etc.
@davidho I’ve noticed the top from Aldi peanut butter (in the US) fits most canning jars. I wish Aldi would take the lead on reuse innovation of more of its packaging.
@davidho in France, mustard pots are often illustrated with kid/cartoon designs, to be reused as drinking glasses.
Some are more grown up, though.
As for myself, most of my short glasses used to be nutella pots.
@temptoetiam @davidho I'm wondering who doesn't have Nutella glasses in France :)
@davidho i have a marinara sauce jar that _is_ a measuring cup! sadly i don’t know the brand, but next time you’re in the marinara sauce mood it’s good to take a look!
@davidho ...yes indeed! even seasoning shakers make great craft and workshop storage for all those little beads baubles bolts and screws. their lids also make great catch trays. add a magnet to lid or base and is easy to store em under a shelf or on a wall. 
@davidho
I now have a complete set of 12oz jam jar drinking glasses 
Reminds me of when Flour companies started printing patterns on sacks once they realized they were being turned into clothing during the depression.
No time for generosity or creativity these days when the only driving force is more profit for a select few.
@davidho Cuajada (a milk curd served with honey) pots are commonly reused in Spain as informal coffee cups. They are ceramic and usually come with a foil lid. The top half is usually glazed and the bottom left unglazed.
@davidho
I like removing the labels and adding my own permanent sharpie labels.
@davidho I generally don’t reuse the glas pots.
But here we actually have glas recycling so I throw them in the recycle container
@davidho 1) I've been used to this since growing up in the 80s and the planet was still destroyed. 2) Once my whole flat is full of glass jars, I still have to throw away a huge amount every month for the rest of my life.
@davidho I use jars for everything. Usually steam the labels off though.
@davidho
I re-use glass jars for many things, but as I also make jam, and give some away, it's difficult to top up the collection. I resort to asking for donations.
Pesto jars etc were handy, but now the supplier of food-in-jars asks for return of jars and bottles (to be sterilised and re-used). One has to support that.
@davidho Like many other, I grow up with Tupperware (now insolvent) and likewise plastic containers.
I switched away from plastics to glass containers. Some are designated food containers, but most of them are just reused jam- and other food-jars. Some food can even be sterilized within those jars. It's usually the screw cap that defines how long it's save to use a jar for food.
The labels can usually be removed easier after filling hot water into the jar.
@davidho Measuring cups is a great idea.
Apparently, back in the Great Depression, some flour companies learned that people were using the flour sacks as fabric, so they had floral patterns printed on the inside.
https://kindnessblog.com/2015/05/06/flower-sack-dresses-from-the-flour-mills-historical-kindness/
@ClimateJenny @davidho My mum actually recently bought me a shirt "Dinco Flour", on her recent trip from where she grew up, which is inspired by the flour company that she and others would make clothing from when she was a kid.
@davidho
Glass is benign and recyclable, plastic is toxic and not recycled. How about we simply go back to glass?
@davidho , in my childhood a popular mustard brand in Finland came in glass jars which could be reused as drinking glasses. Every household I knew had (and used) a set of these green glasses.
Same in Germany. These are pretty standard:
https://shop.rewe.de/p/bautz-ner-senf-im-kinderglas-250ml/1106511
Though dual use mustard glasses have become less common, it seems.
@davidho This used to be a mustard jar. I thought it was pretty, so I collected six of them, and we now use them as drinking glasses. I also kept the lids, so it's easy to store small amounts of food there, still.
Ⓥ 
@davidho having grown up in household that re used glass for homemade jam, 
compote etc, I struggle to through them out
but no space
@davidho jars are objectively better than cups. They hold more, and have lids for transportation!