Selfsufficientish.com

When I first started making wine several decades ago, empty wine bottles cost a daft sum in Boots, when you could soak the labels off a second-hand wine bottle for nowt.

How things have changed.

Water-soluble glue has gone and we have computer-cut, multi-segmented, self-adhesive, plasticised Stalinist labels that just will not soak off. And even if you can remove the paper part of the label, the glue remains. Using warm water, a potato peeler and generous amount of lighter fluid, you can usually do it in about 15 minutes, but is it worth it?.

I have even come across some beer bottles that have completely plastic labels that DO come off quite easily... But leave ALL the glue on the glass - so sticky that it supports its own weight when you hold it.... and takes about half a pint of lighter-fluid to dissolve all the glue.

An honourable exception are Sheppy's cider bottles, where the labels soak off real easy. (They make some jolly nice cider too which is often discounted).

anyway enough rambling... are there any more tips and techniques I might try to remove these self-adhesive abominations?

I know many people leave the labels on but I like to have some standards :-)

Stalinist labels!!!!

Jeyes Fluid, Acetone (Nail varnish Remover), Washing Up Liquid, Furniture Polish all get sticky stuff off apparently.

However like with our peanut butter jars we just soak them in hot water and scrape the gunge off with a sharp knife then a good scrub with washing up liquid usually gets most of it off.

A good soaking and a scrape with a knife and any other stuff I usually use nail varnish remover and a scrubby thingy, it do come off eventually but sometimes I despair and chuck em in the recycle instead!!!!!!

I am afraid I have had to "lower my already pretty low standards" and give in and just stick another label over the bloomin things. pbf.

We use white spirit if necessary on jam jars but there are some where the glue just will not come off so like Becks we give up and chuck in the recycling!

Oh and whilst on the topic I am sick of having to remove sticky labels and glue from bloody free range chicken!!! There's already plastic packaging all around it, so why extra the labels stuck direct on the skin?

We just use a long soak then wire wool. Seems to come off OK.

My free range chicken don't have any labels on them .... oh you mean DEAD ones
Well at least that's one thing that hasn't crossed the Irish sea yet, never seen any labels stuck to any meat.

Jam jars are a right pain though as you say, the glue stays sticky for years. So much for home recycling.

Edited to say, do you know if the glue is edible on your chicken labels ?
Or more precisely, is the glue safe to eat, as I just love crispy roast chicken skin.
Rather defeats the object of buying free range though.

I've got to the stage that, on the fairly rare occassions that I buy beer, I make my choice based as much on how easy the labels are to remove as on what's inside the bottle... Some just aren't worth the effort. Think of the environmental impact of all that lighter fluid!

Am so with you guys on this one - labels on jars and bottles do my nut in - I'm almost at the stage of asking for the jars / bottles back from peeps I've given them to as presents just cos I've managed to get the labels off those ones and can't face doing any more. Mayo jars are a particular bug bear of mine.
Havent tried furniture polish or acetone/ nail polish remover - does seem a bit extreme - plus i'd have to go and buy some, doh

Green Aura wrote:We just use a long soak then wire wool. Seems to come off OK.

On chickens?

Odsox wrote:My free range chicken don't have any labels on them .... oh you mean DEAD ones
Well at least that's one thing that hasn't crossed the Irish sea yet, never seen any labels stuck to any meat.

Jam jars are a right pain though as you say, the glue stays sticky for years. So much for home recycling.

Edited to say, do you know if the glue is edible on your chicken labels ?
Or more precisely, is the glue safe to eat, as I just love crispy roast chicken skin.
Rather defeats the object of buying free range though.

OK I should say it's not quite the same sort of sticky glue as on jam jars, but the labels don't always peel off that easily so I have to pick off bits of paper that get left behind. There's no sticky residue left - it's more the nuisance factor rather like those fruit where they have to stick an individual label on every banana or apple or whatever and you have to get it off before you eat them or put the peel in the compost. And it's just so unnecessary as on the chickens all that info about the breeder etc could just be on the plastic wrapping not underneath it.

I've just heard of a new method - rip off what you can then soak the remaining label with mayonnaise for half an hour!

must give that a try on the next bottle !

No No I love my mayonnaise toooooooo much, sorry no can do