Recently, I became the proud owner of a Sigg aluminum bottle. Made in Switzerland, they come in a wide variety of sizes and patterns. From the Sigg site: Produced from a single component that is seamless and has no comparable weak points, SIGG bottles are tremendously durable and virtually unbreakable.

Poisonous Plastic?

For the last year, I’ve head stories about how bad plastic bottles can be to both your health and the environmet. I held out for a long time, but once I laid eyes on the Sigg version above (complete with a faux wax seal!), it was love at first sight.

Earth (and Money) Saver

On an average of three days a week, I used to stop at Starbucks and buy a chai latte or fancy coffee-based drink a cost of about three dollars each. Once I got the Sigg, I decided to test different concoctions and make my own warm drinks to bypass Starbucks altogether. Using the same mixture they do for their Tazo Chai lattes, I came up with an almost identical taste.

Making my own drinks and transporting them in the Sigg sense for two reasons:

1. I felt guilty about all the paper coffee cups I was throwing away:
3 cups a week X 52 weeks / yr. = 156 unnecessary pieces of garbage annually.

2. With the money saved from making my own drinks, I’d have enough each year to buy my annual plane ticket to New York:
3 drinks per week x $3.00 = $9.00 on average per week
$9.00 X 52 weeks / yr. = $468.00 saved per year!!

(*Obviously, I still have to buy my own Chai mix and milk, but the savings is probably still around $300.00.)

Tiny changes in our lives can snowball and really make a difference. I’m starting small and hoping to build slowly into being more conscious of my consumption and purchases.

What do you do (or recommend) to lessen your footprint on the Earth?