The Vessels of Our Lives

My collection of drink vessels. (That
handsome fella in the back is Jasper.)

This weekend it became apparent to me that I've got a nice little routine with the water bottles I use. There's the red one with the sport top for the gym and the metal one with the straw sipper I take to my part-time gig. But I also have a few other drink vessels that have recently become prevalent in the mix because I'm working my way through the Arbonne Fit Kit. I have my glass water cylinder with the tight-sealing top that I take in the car to drink my fizzy sticks this morning. And, my favorite, I have my blender cup that I use at least twice daily now to mix up protein shakes.

I'm washing these bottles by hand basically every single day. Tonight I was thinking about how much water I've filtered for myself to drink and how many plastic bottles I *haven't* used by instead using these bottles. I've easily saved a dozen bottles a week (if I used one to two new bottles each day).

If you've heard it once, you've heard it a million times: plastic bottle waste makes for icky statistics. The "reduce, reuse, recycle" mantra begins with reducing the things we have... so it's better to fill your own bottle than take that new one from the vending machine. But sometimes the convenience is unavoidable. So the next time you get a bottle of water, try reusing it several times before recycling it--make that bottle live its life! Or upcycle it to make the bottle live a different life. The environment will thank you. So do I. Right here: thank you.

Besides, if you're into DIY projects like I am, it's actually pretty inspiring to see what people are doing with reusable and upcyclable materials these days!