Glass Dharma = Good Green Karma {Review & Giveaway}

As you know, I've been trying to cut down on our waste when ever I can and have switched many of our disposables or to reusable; hankies, cloth napkins, feminine care products.

Another disposable I've been trying to get out of our house is straws. Dylan absolutely loves drinking out of a straw. I don't know what it is about straws but kids just love them. Ok, and I like them for when Dylan wants to share my morning smoothie. He doesn't want his own, just some of mine. Yum.

Now I know I should reuse them by washing them or keeping them for crafts but I'm terrible about doing that, so they just end up in the garbage can. Every time I throw one away I cringe a little.

Plus when we go out (rarely, but still) there's always the straw that comes with the drink. Whether it's a restaurant or Starbuck's, that little piece of plastic really bugs me.

Plastic straws are another one those green little pet peeves that I've now developed while trying to reduce the amount of waste we go through. Yeah, I've got issues.

Lucky for me I've also got a solution; reusable straws. Oh. Yeah.

And where can you get reusable straws; Glass Dharma.

Glass Dharma sent me a (free) set of 3 reusable glass straws to try out; Simple Elegance, Beautiful Bend and Decorative Dots. Which are all made by hand right here in California. Nice!

I know what you're thinking, “Glass straws? Isn't glass, maybe, a little dangerous?” As it turns out, not really.

The straws are made from borosilicate (the same glass Pyrex is made from) and is the strongest glass commercially available. Which means it won't break, but if your straw does Glass Dharma offers a 100% money back guarantee.



When the straws got here they were a lot thicker then I expected (very good) and definitely didn't seem like they would break easily. But I guess you never really know. Well, unless you have a 5 year old in your house.

We decided to go out to eat (I had to try out the straws, right?) and the boys wanted to take the Simple Elegance and the Beautiful Bends straws to use. So I put the straws in the boxes they came in and handed a box to each boy, can you guess where this is going? Dylan takes his, turns and runs to grab his jacket. The straw goes flying (yes, flying) out of the box, hits the metal dog food dish, makes this loud clanking sound and everyone freezes. I go over, pick up the straw and..... nothing, not a scratch or crack on it. So yeah, I'd say these straws are pretty durable.



You can also get a carrying case for your straw, which I imagine would work better then the box they come in (hehe). I'm definitely going to have to pick one of those up.



And guess what, Glass Dharma is giving one lucky reader a $25 gift certificate! That's like getting 4 drinking straws or a straws-case-cleaning brush combo! Sweet!

So here's what you need to do. For the main entry go to Glass Dharma and leave a comment here telling me what you would get with the $25 gift certificate. This one must be done before any additional entries will count.

For additional entries:

• Follow @easyecotogo on
• Twitter and leave your @name (1 entry)
  
• Follow @GlassDharma on Twitter and leave your @name (1 entry)
  
• Write a blog about the contest or email 3 friends & cc me on the email easyecotogo at gmail.com (3 entries, please leave 3 comments)
  
• Tweet about the contest (Little straws by @GlassDharma make a big impact, win a $25 GC from @easyecotogo http://bit.ly/cFodDk #giveaway ) (1 entry, can be done once a day. Please leave a comment for each tweet)
  
• Follow my blog in Google Friend (1 entry)
  
• Subscribe to Easy Eco To Go (2 entry, leave 2 comments)
  
• Add my button to your blog (leave your site with your comment so I can stop by and say hi!) (3 entries, please leave 3 comments)

Separate comments must be left here for each additional entry!!

Also, please include your email with comments or if you’d rather, after you leave your main entry comment, email me at easyecotogo(at)gmail(dot)com so I will have a way of contacting you if you win. You will have 48 hours after I contact you to send me your info or else I will choose another winner.

The contest will run from Monday February 15, 2010 thru Monday February 22, 2010 at 11:59 pm PST. Sorry, but the contest is only open to US residents.

And as always the boys will help me pick a winner which will be announced Tuesday the 23rd.