How to Reuse Florida Crystals Containers

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. You’ve probably heard the phrase before, but at Florida Crystals®, we’ve truly taken it to heart. We reduce waste throughout our sugar-making process, reuse the fiber from our sugarcane to power our facilities, and have chosen recyclable pouches and jugs to encase our products. But, with a little care, you can help us take the sustainability of our products to a new level.

The plastic jugs that your Florida Crystals® Organic Raw Cane Sugar and other products come in can be truly useful well beyond their days of containing those pure, sweet crystals. These uses include:

Garden Container

The large size and convenient shape of your Florida Crystals® jugs makes them a great option for planting everything from annual flowers that add a splash of color inside or outside your home, to herbs that can add a kick of flavor to your favorite foods. The jugs can be used individually, making them flexible enough to place anywhere you have extra space and adequate light, or arranged into a beautiful display piece. A few examples are:

• Hanging planters: By carefully cutting out the sides of the jug, threading a bit of twine or yarn through the top and then filling the base with soil, you can create a hanging planter to hold flowering plants, decorative vines or even small fruit or vegetable varieties. Strawberries, for instance, grow extremely well in hanging planters.
• Arranged displays: Stacked on a stepped terrace, attached to a vertical trellis or even arranged into a large pyramid-like structure, your Florida Crystals® jugs can be used to keep flowers, herbs or veggies close at hand. You can keep things simple by just cutting off the tops, adding potting soil and watering by hand as needed. Or, you can really strap on those DIY boots and add a hose, some tubing and a garden timer to make a self- watering masterpiece that literally grows itself. Just add plants, check back once in a while, and reap the rewards of your environmental stewardship.
• Succulent pot: Succulents make for attractive décor, and their upkeep couldn’t be simpler. Use your spent Florida Crystals® containers to house these adorable plants, and you’ll beautify any room in your home.

Gardening Tools

Even if you already have plenty of planters around, or if you prefer to plant directly in the ground, Florida Crystals® jugs can be easily repurposed as tools to help make your time spent tending to plants a little easier. A few examples include:

• Watering jug: Glue the lid of your Florida Crystals® jug closed and then poke or drill a few holes in the top of the lid itself. This easy DIY can create a durable watering jug that’s easy to fill up, flip over and use to gently water any plant in need.
• Garden scoop: From digging in the soil to spreading fertilizer, a large scoop has plenty of uses in the garden. To repurpose your Florida Crystals® jug as one, carefully cut the jug diagonally from approximately halfway up the handle to the base of the opposite side using a box cutter or sharp knife. This will allow you to grasp the scoop by its handle and scoop with the opposite edge

Additional Household Tasks 

Aside from gardening, our containers can help with other activities around your home. Consider these ways to get additional use out of your Florida Crystals® Sugar containers:

• Pet Food Containers: No matter what type of furry friend you have at home, you’ll find that our easy-to-hold containers make an equally easy way to distribute food to your pets!
• Laundry Detergent Container: Most detergents come in cardboard boxes, which can tear and spill. Instead, transfer your detergent to the sturdy, plastic confines of a Florida Crystals® Sugar container to make it easier to handle and pour.
• Pantry Storage Container: The same way our containers keep Florida Crystals® sugar fresh, they can help to keep items in your pantry fresh as well. Use it for cereal, rice or other small items. It can even be used to combine spices for your signature grill seasoning if you’re a born grill master.

At Florida Crystals®, we’re proud to be the only organic, raw cane sugar grown in the U.S., and to treat the environment around us with care. When you choose to reuse our containers, or to recycle them when they’re truly spent, you’re doing the same. Thanks!