anti-disposable culture: BNTO by cuppow

i've been trying to live my life in sync with what i value gradually more and more over the years. it has been really enlightening and very all over the place as far as what larger effects it has lead to. i've realized that living a conscious life is well worth whatever stupid effort or snags i've run into, and that it manifests itself in a bunch of seemingly unrelated events which is really interesting to me. so here is my attempt to share it with you, an ongoing blog series named after what i've had in the religion section of facebook since i made it in 2004: anti-disposable culture. so whether it's canning seasonal produce, reducing waste, buying second hand and making clothing or supporting the local economy, small business and buying usa made, it will all be here.

seeing as my cuppow jar drinking lid is probably my favorite anti-disposable product and both mine and db's have seen daily use since purchasing them a year and a half ago, cuppow's new BNTO seemed like the perfect place to start. so here it is, my new park picnic buddy.
BNTO is a 6 oz. bpa free cup made of recycled plastic that fits into the top of a wide mouth canning jar. it's held in place with the lid and ring of whatever jar you're using and exists solely to keep wet and dry things separate. it is awesome. as soon as i popped it out of its packaging i made the best snack ever, a snack that is normally not even remotely portable... mint newman-o's and soy milk!

here is BNTO in action

it was a wild success, even though i was just sitting at home and could have easily used a plate and glass instead. i turned it upside down, no leaking. all that glorious soy milk kept its ass in the jar.

yum and fun and resourcefulness combined, plus it's made in the USA. i'm into it.

honestly though, it's all fun and games until something gets thrown in my tote. somehow things that shouldn't even be wet seem to explode in there sometimes. so i brought BNTO into the wild and uzo and i had a chips and hummus picnic at the park. it ended up being a cuppow party, nothing leaked and i even let uzo try a chip which in hindsight was maybe not the best idea, even though it was absolutely adorable. he nibbled tiny pieces off at a time while looking at me like "this is food? really?"

picnic! my cuppow was the first one they came out with, now they make them in pretty colors and with a hole large enough for a straw.

i'm sure there are going to be some weird foods that end up in this. i'm excited i won't have to wrap guacamole and other cold ingredients up in cling wrap to keep them separate for lunch now, and salads to go! you can use it for tons of stuff; salsa, sprinkles to make your own rainbow yogurt, homemade dunkaroos, peanut butter and anything, nutella and everything, cereal snacks, yogurt and berries... pretty exciting. cuppow really nailed it again.

if you think this is a cool idea you should totally check out the cuppow website. right now they've got a vid up about the BNTO and there are some fun colors of jar lids available, too. free shipping with four items or more also which is rad. treat yo-self!