We go through a lot of yogurt in our house. It may be from a large 32 oz tub, a kid size container, or a squeezy tube that works wonders to calm a two year old. We typically have our yogurt with my homemade granola recipe and fresh fruit that is in season.
Sadly, our local recycling center does not accept #5 plastic containers, which nearly all yogurt containers are made from. I save them and drop off a bunch at the Gimme 5 drop box at my local Whole Foods. This isn’t always practical as it takes even more planning to remember both the old yogurt cups and our reusable bags.
We recently got the opportunity to try the new Wallababy yogurts. It’s hard for a two year old not to like a little cup with a kangaroo on it, but I didn’t expect tears when I couldn’t offer any more banana yogurt one morning. Clearly, we found a winner in the new yogurt category. I’m a big fan of organic, whole milk options, as I believe the less we process our dairy products, the more beneficial they are too our health. Also, my daughter is growing tall, but doesn’t gain a pound. I figure whole milk is best for her growing bones and weight plateau. I tried a taste of the banana yogurt myself, and I was pleased that it was not too sweet. It baffles me how sweet and artificial (and colorful) kids yogurts have become. I found the Wallababy products at my local Whole Foods…which just opened another location even closer to my house, yeah!
With all the random yogurt containers waiting to be recycled, I thought I would share some favorite ways to reuse them.
Use the yogurt as a paint holder, especially good for little spillers.
You can never have too many craft containers.
Glue holder, which I use for my own craft projects. (And is there a better glue than Mod Podge, I think not!)
How do you reuse your yogurt containers? (Or can you recycle them locally?)
Disclosure: I was provided samples of the Wallababy yogurt to review. It did not influence my opinion, or my two year old’s as well. 🙂
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Our recyclers take it all, which I'm glad for! When we consumed much more yogurt, I actually made most of it in the crockpot!
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Our curbside recycling program does take #5, but we give our yogurt tubs as many uses as possible before recycling. I listed 10 different uses in my big list of ways to reuse things, and I didn't think to mention paint cups–we did that when we bought our house and had a "help touch up our chipped baseboards" party. 🙂
I have used yogurt containers to start plants for the garden
I do the Gimme 5 thing at Whole Foods too…I have to say I feel pretty hardcore [in a good way] that I have a bag of 5s that I save for that trip. 🙂 The YoBaby [Stonyfield] that I buy is some new plastic made out of vegetables, so you can't recycle it anywhere yet, but it's supposed to be better for the environment. HATE just throwing those things away. 🙁
We would love to include the top picture in our 'Wallababy and Joey Taste Panelist" album on Facebook. If you wouldn't mind, you could send it to community@wallabyyogurt.com and we'll include it! It's a great shot! Thanks for the lovely post.
I love Wallaby yogurt – the pear is really good as well. However I've stopped buying individual serving yogurts as they're really wasteful. They do accept yogurt containers in our curbside, but the thing is that *all* plastic is downcycled, meaning that a plastic yogurt tub will never be used to make a new plastic yogurt tub (unlike paper and glass and aluminum, which can make the same products over and over). Instead, plastics are down-cycled to lesser products like plastic composite fencing and such, which can then never be recycled and is highly toxic if burned. The best thing is to reduce overall use of anything that comes in plastic, and if you must use plastic, buy it in the biggest container they sell it in. Good explanatory post at: http://robinshreeves.blogspot.com/2008/05/green-term-of-week-downcycle.html
Its good to use plastic or glass containers again and again to do eco-friendly deeds.
Reusable Containers