Who: Specialty Bottle – Seattle, WA

What: Clear Top Tin Containers

Where: Specialty Bottle -  Round Tins, Square Tins & Rectangular Tins – $0.63 – $1.25/each! (Bulk discounts available too!)

Why We Love It: Ever since reading Time Magazines “The  Perils of Plastics“, and learning more and more about the dangers of the unregulated chemicals and toxins found in plastics – seriously, it’s frightening – we’ve been on a mission to cut down on the amount of plastic in our lives, particularly in the kitchen. We’ve weaned ourselves off of plastic water bottles, plastic baggies, ziplok bags, but the last thing to go has been our plastic tupperware containers. We’ve been using empty salsa and pasta sauce jars for leftover soups, but we just haven’t found a viable or affordable alternative for the rest of  our leftovers. We’ve found a majority of the glass or stainless steel containers run around $10 each, so we’d easily be spending $100 and still not have enough containers to get us through the week… Click to continue »

Who: ReSnackIt – CT

What: ReUsable Sandwich Bags

Where: ReSnackIt – snack size – $7.99, sandwich size – $9.99 (Buy 3 or more ReSnackIts and receive 10% off)

Why We Love It: If we are going to change the way we consume, it helps to start with kids. We’ve seen 4 year olds reach for their reusable bottles and reusable snack bags, and they’ll certainly be reaching for them if they are as fun and brightly colored as the reusable snack and sandwich bags from ReSnackIt. With bags like these, who needs Ziplok? Not only do they help reduce waste being trucked to landfills (think about it, approximately 20 million plastic baggies are thrown away in US schools every week, every week! That’s insanity!), but they also keep harmful chemicals like lead, phthalates, BPAs and PVCs away from our food. Click to continue »

Who: down home amy – Vancouver, Canada

What: reusable snack pouches

Where: etsy – small $12, large $16 or a combo for $28. Spend $40 or more & receive a free
reusable produce bag!

Why We Love It: These are the cutest pouches ever! Amy’s adorably sweet illustrations make these reusable cloth bags so endearing that even the most devoted zip-lock bag users might just convert.

Choose from chickadees, bunnies, owls, pandas, trains, planes,  apples and pears, anchors in a variety of colors all silk-screened onto fabric made of recycled organic cotton and hemp. Click to continue »

Who: Kor; Fountain Valley, CA

What: “Thirst for Giving” Special Edition Vessels

Where: Kor – $35 (See also the KOR ONE BPA Free Hydration Vessel for $25.99)

Why We Love It: We first spotted the Kors Hydration Vessel at the Green Pavilion of the Architectural Digest Home show last year. Huge fans of the bright colors, the slick cylindrical shape and the innovative flip-top cap hinged to stay in place – no more running around the house in search of our missing screw top caps. The wide-mouthed top also fits ice cubes quite nicely so you can enjoy cool beverages. Another nice feature, for klutzs like ourselves, is the grippy bottom to help avoid inadvertent spills. This is a good sized water bottle, much taller than standard models on the market, but the cylindrical shape fits nicely in the plam of your hand (even our small hands!) Click to continue »

Who: SIGG; Switzerland

What: SIGG Concept Snowflake Water Bottle (1.0L)

Where: Amazon.com – $24.99; Sigg Lifestyle Loop Top Water Bottle (1.0-Liters)

Why We Love It: The SIGG label has been around since 1908 and has been known to make high quality durable aluminum products. Their iconic water aluminum water bottles have not changed in shape since 1993, but has broadened its colorful and ever changing designs to include works from over 30 different artists. And today, we are giving away one of their limited Edition Concept Snowflake water bottles.

The bottle is made of 100% recyclable aluminum and features their new BPA-free liner (SIGGs recently came under fire for not disclosing that their old liners contained trace amounts of BPA). The can really take a beating, we’ve dropped ours on ice, pavement, wood floors  and they’ve survived with just a few dents – most SIGGs in Europe are still being used 10-20 years after purchase. Click to continue »

Who: Earthlust; San Francisco, CA

What: Black Flower Stainless Steel Water Bottle

Where: Earthlust – $18 (Subscribers to The Find get 15% off through 12/31)

Why We Love It: Tis’ the season to trade in your single-use water bottles for a totally chic, totally durable reusable stainless steel water bottle from Earthlust. The bottles are made of a double-walled food grade stainless steel that is 100% PVC and BPA-free.  Even the caps are BPA-free, so you can be sure that this bottle is safe to use time and time again.

The bottles are coated with a non-toxic paint featuring gorgeous nature-inspired designs, most of which are limited edition. The problem is, with so many great designs to choose from, it is hard to choose just one! Click to continue »

Who: Jorre Van Ast for Royal VKB; The Netherlands

What: Jar Tops

Where: Abodeon – $24

Why: This is such an incredibly brilliant idea and we are not the only ones to think so. The Jar Cap concept has won the Woon Award for best interior product , the Dutch Design award and is on now part of the permanent collection at the MoMa, NY. But accolades aside, this is just a great product.

Taking the fact that 75% of jar caps on the same size, Jorre Van Ast saw a great opportunity to reclaim those jars from the recycling bin and to give them new purpose. Now you can transform that tapenade jar into the perfect size sugar shaker or that giant sized honey jar from the farmer’s market into a kitschy juice pitcher. Click to continue »

So, you know those SIGG water bottles that were considered a great alternative to BPA leaching plastic water bottles? Well, in case you haven’t heard,  SIGG recently, rather finally, disclosed that their epoxy resin liners contain BPA although their tests have shown that there is no evidence of leaching.  What is most disturbing is that they have known since 2006 that their ‘propriety’ epoxy resin liner contained trace amounts of BPA which is why in 2008 they quietly introduced their new BPA-free EcoCare Liners without recalling the old ones (Note: we purchased 4 SIGG water bottles last year from the SIGG  booth at the Natural Products Expo and there was surprisingly no mention of the two different liners. Turns out, all of the 4 had the BPA liners, nice).  Click to continue »

Who: 3greenmoms;  Potomac, MD

What: LunchSkins Reusable Snack & Sandwich Bags

Where: 3greenmoms.com – $8.95  for the sandwich bag & $7.85 for the snack bag; ReusableBags.com – $8.95 for the sandwich bag & $7.95  for the snack bag w/discounts for orders of 2 or more.

Why We Love ‘Em: Finally a stylish, feel-good replacement for that old tattered zip lock bag that has been reused a hundred times and leaves your lunch vulnerable to the dreaded office lunch snatcher. Would they be so brazen to steal the pb&j tucked discreetly in the shark tote with your name on it? Hmmm…

While they can’t perform miracles, these bags will definitely help curb your ‘trash footprint.’ Unlike some of the other reusable sandwich bags,  LunchSkins are made with a high quality, moisture-proof German fabric (it feels almost like a sail cloth) used worldwide in the food industry so it can handle more than just dry goods without leaking and hot items without melting. Best of all, the durable fabric makes these baggies machine washable! Click to continue »

SIGG has partnered with the Jane Goodall Institute to support the Drop of Hope campaign with their limited edition “Drop of Hope” reusable water bottle. The stainless steel water bottles are on sale at mySIGG.com for $24.99 with a portion of the proceeds going directly to support the “Drop of Hope: Water for the World” campaign.

Drop of Hope was launched in 2007  to bring attention to the clean water crisis that affects millions of  people worldwide and to raise money to provide clean drinking water to those in need. One of the main objectives of the campaign was to reduce overall consumption by decreasing “disposable water bottle use by approximately 800,000 bottles by replacing them with only 5,000 completely recyclable stainless steel bottles.” Our bottled water addiction burns nearly 47 million gallons of oil a year and for every 1 liter bottle made nearly 3 liters of water are wasted in the process.

Your purchase will help support the campaign by keeping water bottles out of landfills, raising awareness and for every Drop of Hope bottle sold $5 will be donated to initiatives to bring clean drinking water to schoolchildren in Africa.