How to Recycle Glass Bottles and Jars for Money

Last updated Mar. 12, 2023 by Favour Chinaza

You can save money by recycling aluminum cans, glass bottles, and jars. Not just that, you can sell your recycled bottles and jars for money.

From milk bottles to wine bottles, baby food, mayonnaise, juice, and salsa, the list of glass-packaged products is endless!

Glass is very simple to recycle, but the number of glass bottles discarded yearly could fill a giant skyscraper!

A single modern glass bottle can take over 4000 years to decompose. Recycling just one household glass bottle or jar can reduce air pollution by 20% and water pollution by 50%, according to Planet Green.

The best thing about glass is that it can be recycled indefinitely without deteriorating in its quality.

Of course, taking your glass items to a recycling point is an excellent way to dispose of them, but you can also recycle them creatively!

Can I Save Money Recycling Glass Bottles and Jars?

You can make money with Bottle Redemption and you can also save money recycling glass bottles and jars into other home items.

You can save a lot glass containers in your home, such as those used for soda, beer, or other glass beverage containers – or if you know other people who buy a fair amount of bottled beverages.

Recycling glass bottles ars could be a good way to save money and make extra money if you know other people who buy a fair amount of bottled beverages.

Recycling glass bottles and jars is a side job that won’t make you wealthy, but it will help you earn some additional income and contribute to keeping the environment a little bit greener at the same time. This is a win-win situation.

If you are considering making a side business out of recycling glass bottles and jars for cash, there are places to sell your glass recyclables and other information you need to know to get started.

Related: 6 Ways to Recycle Computers for Money

Ways to Recycle Glass Bottles and Jars Save Money

A few different processes/ways are involved in gaining money by recycling glass jars. They are:

1. DIY Liquid Soap Dispenser

Creating a one-of-a-kind soap dispenser is as easy as purchasing a pump or repurposing one from an existing plastic container; all you need is a bottle into which the pump can be inserted.

This home-made dispenser might be given as a kind present to someone on their birthday or during a housewarming celebration.

With these, you can save money instead of buying soap dispensers. You can also sell them on places like Etsy.

2. Set of Canisters

Recycled glass bottles and jars are ideal for storing pantry items like cereal, flour, and sugar.

There’s no need to purchase expensive canister sets when bottles and wide-mouth jars (such as pickle jars) will suffice!

You can even get creative and make labels from colored cards or attach small knobs to the lids.

3. Wine Bottle Bird Feeder

This bird feeder may be made by anybody with some basic knowledge of do-it-yourself projects and requires just an empty wine bottle, some wood, a few screws, and a piece of wire rope.

The filter will gradually remove the seeds; when the bottle is empty, you will just need to untie the rope to remove it and replace it with a new one.

4. Spray Glass Bottle

Empty glass bottles are an excellent choice for storing cleaning supplies. For example, transferring the spray nozzle from an old plastic container to a new glass bottle is simple.

Spray bottles can be extremely useful for various household tasks; however, plastic can leach dangerous chemicals into the contents.

To our relief, spray nozzles found on glass bottles of vinegar, juice, soda, and other liquids typically have twist-off caps that can be used.

5. Miniature Terrarium

A terrarium groups small, decorative plants that grow in a glass bowl or container. Make your mini terrarium in almost any of recycled glass jar or bottle, but the larger the jar, the better!

Fill the container with pebbles, activated charcoal, moss, soil, and your favorite plants. It is critical to add the materials correctly to keep the soil healthy.

6. Home-Made Decors

It’s as simple as arming yourself with paint, Epsom salts, and Mod Podge to make one-of-a-kind Christmas decorations out of glass bottles of any size.

Stuff them with fresh pine branches, glittering craft plants, candles, or whatever your imagination comes up with. You can sell these on sites that sell home decor near you or on Etsy.

7. Repurposed Light Fixture

If you want to light your house yourself, you’ll need a glass/tile drill bit, a lamp holder, and a lamp shade.

All of these things are available at your local hardware store. Others who have done other DIY projects before and have enough tools for those projects should try this one.

Liquids like soda, juice, beer, and wine are often packaged in glass bottles. The majority of curbside recycling programs let you recycle these bottles.

So, why is the percentage of people who recycle aluminum cans (67%) more than twice that of those who recycle glass (34%)? There is no doubt that there is work to be done.

8. Bottle Vase

Make stylish flower vases out of your old wine or liquor bottles by making changes to them.

You can do anything, so get creative! You can paint them, add twine to give them a rustic look, or go all out DIY and hang them on the wall. They can be a great centerpiece for your table and a great topic of conversation at dinner parties.

9. Garden Beds

If you want to make more garden beds, you can also use glass bottles to make higher walls by stacking them on their sides. The soil or growing medium behind them helps to keep them in place.

You could also mortar the glass bottle walls together to make stronger and higher retaining walls to hold back a slope or edge a higher-raised bed.

10. Fairy Night Lights

You can also use glass bottles to make pretty lights for your garden or a place to eat or sit outside.

One easy idea is to string up glass bottles with fairy lights tucked inside each one. Keep in mind that solar fairy lights are an off-grid, eco-friendly option.

Sell Cosmetics Glass Jars

Cosmetic glass packaging is recyclable. However, not all glass recycling companies accept them. They are frequently rejected due to the ability of their contents, which can be oily at times, to contaminate recycling equipment and other recycled material.

As a result, you should thoroughly clean the insides of your glass cosmetic containers before recycling or selling them.

Why Recycle Glass Jars?

Glass is a product that can be recycled indefinitely. As a result, we can reduce glass pollution by properly recycling glass materials. In addition, when we use more recycled glass, we benefit the environment.

We can conserve resources, reduce toxic gas emissions, and reduce pollution.

Instead of dumping glass into a landfill, you can use it to make something else in your home.

Glass jars, for example, can be used to store food in your freezer or as candle jars. Remember to follow your local recycling system’s recycling rules.

Preparation for the Recycling of Glass Bottles and Jars

There are glass recycling videos to help you prepare your glass bottles for recycling. However, because there is no market for broken glass, you should avoid breaking glass bottles at all costs.

You may leave the label or foil on the item, but most recyclers require removing any metal caps.

This is done in part to ensure that all liquids are drained. With wine glasses, you should remove all the wine corks.

It is unnecessary to be concerned about the presence of solids in the bottle, such as a lime wedge in a beer bottle or cork fragments in a wine bottle.

Remove any glass items that are not containers from your recycling bin, such as Pyrex, glasses, windows, and mirrors. These various types of glass cannot be recycled alongside containers.

Where to Sell Recycled Glass Bottles and Jars Near Me

You can sell almost anything on eBay; empty packaging is no exception.

When sold on the open market, products from recycled glasses can fetch you a lot of money.

You can make money selling things on Etsy, thrift stores, or garage sales. These are places to sell your recycled products.

As a result, instead of throwing out your old glass bottles and jars, recycle them and consider selling them on sites like Facebook Marketplace and eBay.

You might make enough money to buy a brand-new pair of Jimmy Choo shoes!

Don’t stop collecting glass bottles and jars; you can make money recycling aluminum cans.

Glass bottles and jars are tested for purity

When it is only 80 percent pure, glass sold as landfill cover may sell for a price ranging from negative $35 to negative $50 per metric ton (mt). When the glass is sold, this is the case.

When the purity is 95 percent, certain markets can be found for as little as 0 to 10 dollars per metric ton. This is due to the product’s high level of demand.

Further treated glass with a purity of up to 99.8 percent and a fine grind may fetch between $70 and $100 per metric ton on the market. This glass is also finely ground.

Recycling Wine Corks For Cash

Glass bottles are not the only wares to recycle for cash; you can also recycle plastic bottles for cash. However, recycling wine corks is more difficult than recycling glass bottles, which is common practice.

There are, however, other alternatives. So if you enjoy a crisp Sauvignon Blanc and a hearty Shiraz, this pairing is for you.

You could make a lot of money if you sold your used wine corks online.

On eBay, a “recommended seller” has 299 sales and sells old wine corks for £5 for twenty corks to £195 for two thousand corks.

You can donate your wine cork

Donating your used wine corks to Recorked, the UK’s most well-known cork recycling program is an excellent way to give back to the community while also helping the environment.

Send them any unwanted bottle stoppers, and they will resell them for you. While also donating a portion of the profits to a select group of charitable organizations.

Empty wine bottles have a market, as evidenced by their availability on online marketplaces like eBay and Amazon.

It’s pointless to throw them away when home brewers will pay up to $29.99 for a package of twenty-four green wine bottles. Therefore, these items should not be placed in the recycle bin.

Related: Turn Your Trash Into Gift Cards With RecycleBank

Bottom Line

Recycling glass bottles can help you save money on home items and earn a little extra monthly if you live in a country or state with a bottle bill. But on the other hand, recycling glass bottles will not make you rich or allow you to retire early.

If you live in a country or state with a bottle bill, however, recycling glass bottles can help you earn a little extra money each month.

Every little bit of extra revenue helps, and increasing the amount of money you produce for yourself is one of the many financial decisions that could make you wealthy.

In fact, if you find a sufficient number of other sources of income, you may be able to abandon your regular job completely.

You are in charge of your own financial destiny, and now is the time to begin taking the steps necessary to achieve the financial goals that are most important to you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do you recycle glass bottles and jars?

Most cities and towns collect glass bottles and jars from people’s homes. You can also put them in bottle banks. Most people recycle their glass, but we can all still do more. For example, we often forget to recycle our clear glass jars.

Q: Who buys glass for recycling?

Many states already recycle glass, including California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon, and Vermont. Florida is also one of those states.

Q: What can recycled bottles be made into?

If plastic bottles aren’t made into more bottles, they can be made into t-shirts, sweaters, insulation for jackets and sleeping bags, and much more. By creating new bottles out of recycled plastic, we can help close the recycling loop and cut down on the need to use new plastic.

Q: How much money can you get for glass bottles?

Depending on the state where you reside and the kind of bottle you deposit, you may get anywhere from 2 to 15 cents in return for each bottle. If you don’t live in one of those areas, you should look into whether or not there is a recycling facility in your area that will take your glass bottles.

Q: Can I sell my empty glass jars?

Yes, you can sell empty glass jars. The price per ton of downcycled glass ranges from $8 to $12, whereas the price per ton of closed-loop recycled glass ranges from $170 to 240. It costs between $35–65 per tonne for councils to dump waste, which is a cost that is passed on to you, the consumer, in the form of increased council rates. The landfill is not worth anything.

Q: Why are drinking glasses no longer recyclable?

As a result of their unique chemical compositions and melting points, drinking glasses, glass items, and window glass cannot be recycled with other types of glass. This is because drinking glasses, glass objects, and window glass cannot be put with other types of recyclable glass. As a result, drinking glass that has been broken is thrown away with the garbage.

Q: What can I do with old bottles and jars?

Try reusing your empty bottles and jars in the convenience of your own home before shipping them out to be recycled. This will save you time and money.

Q: Do you get money for recycling?

While recycling probably won’t pay the bills, it is a great way to supplement your income. For instance, you may get roughly $5 per pound for your old cans. The additional $260 per year might be earned by saving only $5 every week.