The Days Of Saving Up JRINK Bottles For Free Juice Are Over

For avid JRINK fans, holding onto their glass juice bottles was totally worth it. For every 10 bottles customers turned in, they'd get a bottle of juice for free. But for those with JRINK bottles floating around in the car or stacked artfully on the kitchen counter, take note: JRINK has discontinued that policy.

Instead of requiring JRINK drinkers to lug their 10 bottles into the store, JRINK's switched to a loyalty card systems where 10 stamps equals one JRINK on the house.

But what about the mountain of glass bottles? JRINK co-founder Shizu Okusa told Eater that the glass bottles themselves were never reused, since no juice bar in the US is allowed to reuse the bottles, as per FDA regulations.

"We took them back for loyalty reasons and customers requesting we give rewards on their returns, which I think is totally valid! As we grew, and especially because of our pop-up set up, the amount of returns got...very overwhelming," she wrote in an email.

Even if JRINK had been allowed to reuse the bottles, Okusa said they would be using more water and sanitizing solution and electricity if they cleaned them over and over.

"At the end of it, its best to recycle the glass into something else. We aren't at the size yet to do that," she said. Asides from recycling them, she recommends that customers can turn the glass bottles into vases or water bottles. For those who really want to return them to the store, Okusa said "people can drop them off at 14th [location] if they'd like to," for a special project that's in the works at JRINK.