Kitchen Garden Forum

Is it just me, or are they glueing them on with 'no more nails' these days?
soaking - scraping - cursing - even throwing them in the recycling in despair. M and S transparent labels leave a glue deposit only WD40 can shift. Thank goodness for Bertolli pasta sauce jars - way the best.
cheers,
Giulia x

Agreed. I recycled a lot more than usual last year, just because I couldn't remove the disgusting mess even WITH WD40.

I've put them through the dishwasher, boiled them in a pan, scraped, scrubbed and sworn at them and still no joy.

One thing I did find about my own labels though, if they they are peeled off dry they come off easily. If you get them wet it's a whole new story. That applies to both computer labels and to Lakeland jam jar labels.

Giulia,I'm glad you started this thread as I've found the same thing. I use white spirit/turps then a good coating of neat washing up liquid to remove that, then put them in the dishwasher to get rid of the smell. That has always worked for the most persistent adhesive.

Some companies like Suma use glue where you can soak the label off in water and there is absolutely nothing left. It may sound silly, but I think the government should bring in some legislation on this as anything encouraging the re-use of jars etc can only be to the good. It also can't be good for the environment to have WD40 and white spirit sloshing around and having to be disposed of.
----------------
Granny

Hi All,

I find that if you soak the jars in boiling hot soapy water and leave overnight does the trick, the labels just peal off.

Hope this is of some help

Best wishes


Kevin

I'll be boiling and soaking jam jars all evening by the sound of it. I have around 200 to deal with

Thanks everyone

Hi GIULIA,
I soak mine in water containing Household Soda overnight and the labels fall off and any adhesive that doesn't come off I use Lighter Petrol to take in off. Rewash and use.
JB.

You can get 'Sticky Stuff Remover' which is brilliant for the stubborn ones. Aldi usually has it for sale a couple of times a year.

Methylated spirits and ZOFF sticking plaster remover will take off the stickiest label!

A timely thread as many of us are busy bottling, jam making and preserving. It's a real pain because you can only soak a few in the sink or washing up bowl at any one time. My brother in law put some in his dishwasher and the tiny paper bits clogged up inside the spinning wheels and caused havoc.
I've now acquired an aerosol spray called De-Solve It which is a label remover. YOu can apply direct to labels although I soak mine off first and then spray the glass with this solvent which is very effective at removing the sticky residue. It's made by Mykal Industries Ltd of Wellingborough. www.mykal.co.uk

Me again. I just checked their website and the product they are advertising is not the same as the De-Solv-It aerosol I acquired, (which admittedly is a rather old tin of the stuff). And the prices quoted are astronomical so probably not an option.

I like the sound of the meths - if all else fails you can drink it, which cannot be said for WD40 or soda crystals. (At least I don't think so). I'm glad I started this thread it has conjured up some amusing pictures of us all scrubbing and cursing. I agree with granny - at least for UK jar labelling, ultra strong glue is neither necessary nor useful. I had a fridge clear-out today and actually chucked a few jars that didn't bear close inspection (ahem.) They hide at the back don't they?

Do you also have trouble with UFOs?

Unidentified Frozen Objects

Geoff - don't remind me of unidentified frozen objects. I won't forget the time I pulled out an elderly bag of what looked like frozen chicken stock which had lost its label and dumped it into the saucepan to make Minestrone Soup. It turned out to be gooseberry purree !

My UFO's are unused frozen objects - an awful lot of currants seem to have lingered for over a year now. Until the freezer door won't close I file UFO's under CBA (can't be arsed).

Was reminded of this thread a couple of weeks ago when I tried to remove the transparent label from a jar of Hayward Pickled Onions, having for once bought some instead of pickling them myself. I really lost my rag with it in the end and wrote to them asking whether it was their intention that their jars to be recycled and reused as good environmental practice because the glue on the labels made this impossible. Got the standard response "your comments have been passed to our Marketing Department". I very much doubt whether any marketing man or woman in the food industry ever tried to recycle their product's jars for preserve making !