Two or three posts ago, I wrote how silly it is to go out and get a fancy new container for water to replace plastic bottles.  Serves me right for sounding so smug: not a week later I found myself buying a brand-new water container!  

My boss had a birthday; I had no gift ideas.  Inter-office gifts are so tricky but still I wanted to do a little something...I was despairing...and then it hit me!  Several months back Boss came back from a lunch appointment with a Ball jar.  The barbeque they ordered came with lemonade in jars - a fun little gimmick and then he had a reusable quart container for tea and water in the office.  It served him great for months, until he dropped it on the kitchen floor.  I think he mourned the thing for a whole week. 

I was so proud of myself for remembering the jar!  He loved it, it wasn't expensive but still thoughtful, useful around the office, etc. etc.  That it is more earth-friendly is just an extra-special bonus for me (I'm pretty sure he prefers glass because it tastes and smells better).  I went online - I was now looking to get this thing ASAP, and finding things like Ball jars on short notice in NYC is really, really difficult (believe it or not).  I soon discovered that I couldn't buy one or even two new jars online.  I had to buy twelve!  Used jars?  No problem - eBay people sell tons of them one at a time.  But I felt like I couldn't get the big boss a used jar for his birthday.  Someday perhaps it will be acceptable but not this week. 

Forgo the perfect birthday present because the manufacture and shipping of twelve brand-new jars seems so wasteful?   I figured his one jar would keep lots of plastic cups and bottles out of the trash, and the example for the company would be extremely valuable, whatever his motivations for using the jar are.  The container is distinctive and memorable, and he was taking it to both internal meetings and meetings with visitors - maybe many more cups and bottles would stay out of the landfill because of his "message."  

He was delighted by the gift.  Maybe I'll learn how to do some canning.