thanks, Gavin - I appreciate your thoughts and the useful tip about removing stubborn labels.

After doing some further research it turns that it's very much depending on who you talk to - every local authority has their own interpretation of applicable legislation. Angus Environmental Health are fine with reusing jars, but Aberdeenshire Environmental Health told my friend (who makes marmalades) 3 years ago, that she's not allowed to do this.

So I've asked the question at my local ADBKA forum chat and here too - just on the hope that we can all benefit from knowing where we stand legally.

Also I just read that glass jars definitely aren't part of the Scottish glass bottle deposit scheme - this is mad - how come the government is OK with single-use plastics (of all things that are taking ages to break down) and int he same time are banning the reuse of glass food containers for commercial purposes

I'm also thinking of asking the SBA the question to see if they'll have any recent info on the subject - off now to look out the appropriate contact for the Q&A section from the magazine......