Eco-friendly baby/family products MADE in USA

EcoJarz review- stainless steel & silicone lids for Mason jars, stainless steel straws & spoons & glass mugs with handles. Disclaimer: these are NOT made in the USA! So, why am I reviewing them, isn’t my mission to find only products made in the USA? Not exactly–my mission is to find the safest products on the market for our families, and I always hope that those options also happen to be made in the USA, which many times they are. But there are certain instances where that is not the case, and it almost always involves products made out of stainless steel. It is very rare to find stainless anything made in the US, unless you’re looking at high-end kitchen gear (pots & pans, etc).

When I first started this page a little over a year ago one of the things I was shopping for at that time was a stainless steel sippy cup made in the USA for my one year old. It was such a frustrating search, as I kept finding great cups & getting excited, only to find the small print somewhere that they were made in China. After many hours of searching I realized a stainless sippy cup made here just did not exist, and that is still the case today to my knowledge (if anyone knows of one do share!). Glass is ALWAYS my 1^st choice, and now that my babe is a toddler, he drinks from Mason jars, as does our whole family (we used a Life Factory sippy with him 1^st when he was around 1, which he broke within a week). So, I’ve been thrilled by the various Mason jar lids on the market, and have been using & recommending both Re-Cap lids as well as Cuppow lids to make your own sippy cups for some time now. Although both those options are indeed made in the US, they are still plastic. Even the fact that they are BPA-, PVC- & Phthalate-free still didn’t thrill me; they are still plastic. I like them, but I don’t LOVE them. So, sometimes we have to compromise, and I’ll take stainless made abroad over plastic made in the USA any day. No, I don’t like the carbon footprint that comes with the additional shipping, but as I said I am able to find most products I need made here, and an exception here & there doesn’t make me lose sleep at night (I also recently shared some stainless steel popsicle molds with you that are made in Hong Kong, the best choice I felt in that instance too).

Where exactly these products are made, from their website: “Ecojarz is a diverse business! We have a close relationship with a small Vietnamese company that provides the raw lids to us, we do all end-processing, finishing and shipping from Upstate NY and IN. We love our partners overseas but for environmental and logistical reasons we are constantly exploring many options to get the lids locally despite the considerable increase expense.” What exactly does that mean? Here’s what the owner, Kirby elaborated: “Ecojarz silicone is produced in Vietnam, then processed, cleaned and packaged in USA.  Ecojarz stainless steel raw material is imported to Vietnam from the USA, Japan, and sometimes other counties, then it is stamped, then shipped to USA to be finished in a tumbler, cleaned and packaged.   Ecojarz mugs come from Mexico and EcoJarz wide mouth is manufactured in the USA.  Responsibly made means that I personally have been inside all of the places producing Ecojarz stuff.   I say places because we work with a lot of very small suppliers that work out of their houses, family business style.” The straws & spoons are also produced through the same Vietnamese relationship.

About the company & these products: “We are a young company focused on challenging the concept of throw-away culture. Our first product — the Stainless Steel EcoJarz Drink Top — is designed  to make reuse the new norm. Because our drink tops fit standard canning jars, they also fit hundreds of other bottles and containers that are disposed of everyday.This drink top will fit any standard mouth jar, whether it’s an empty tomato sauce, salsa, or mayonnaise jar. With EcoJarz, the possibilities of turning jars into long-lasting, always-handy, on-the-go drink vessels are almost endless. We suggest reusing a jar you may already have. In fact that is the whole point for us.  Every time someone uses a mayo jar they are basically saving the planet single handedly. For those of you who may not already have a favorite jar, we also offer glass mugs.”

EcoJarz makes both stainless (my 1^st choice) & silicone (my 2^nd choice) lids, as you can see in the attached photo. Here’s some info about both the silicone & stainless used in these products, from their website: The Metal lids are made of 304L Surgical Stainless Steel. Silicone is a flexible rubber-like material made primarily from Silicon (sand/rock) and Oxygen. It has many useful properties and is rapidly becoming commonplace in kitchens all over the world as a high-temperature and inert replacement to plastic. It is a great insulator, does not support bacterial growth, is UV stable, does not off-gas, is non-toxic and is highly reusable. You can learn more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicone#Cookware.

I gathered a variety of sizes of jars that I had around my house for the photo, 2 regular mouth & 2 wide mouth (the quart has chopped garlic in it, but wanted to show you the variety of sizes these lids can fit). The glass mug with the handle was sent to me by them, and is the only Mason jar I have with a handle, I realized it’s kind of nice! But, both they, and I highly encourage you to use jars you already have. The great news is that all Ball & Kerr Mason jars are made in the US. I’ve accumulated more than a cupboard full over the years, of all sizes, leftover from jellies, etc. They all come in handy, and I’m growing to love the wide-mouths more & more. The EcoJarz lids have a silicone gasket on the inside so they have a nice, snug fit. The straight smoothie straws fit snugly & make a very nice fit, while the straws with the bend in them are slightly looser. If you were to tip the jar upside down with either straw you would get a little bit of leakage. I started my son on a Mason jar sippy with a lid around 14 or so months, and yes we had a spill here & there (usually intentionally), but he got the idea very quickly. He now loves using straws & knows where they are in our drawer & will go grab them himself, especially for smoothies. We both favor the ones with the bend in them, it’s kind of nice not to have to pick up the glass, but we’ve been using both styles & enjoying them. I reviewed some glass straws by GlassDharma a few months ago, and several of you expressed concern over the possibility of them breaking & your preference for stainless over glass in this instance. They also sent me 4 long handled spoons. I unfortunately just broke the last of my nice tall pint jars that I love using for one of my favorite treats: root beer floats, but I will be getting some more soon & those spoons will be perfect for that, a shake, or a thick smoothie, among other things. Here are their offerings & prices. You can mix & match lids & straws & the more you add on the more you save. And, for the international friends of the page:

Do you ship internationally?
Yes, however due to the most recent cost-increase by the USPS, it is getting more expensive than ever to ship over the pond.  While we try to keep our shipping prices as low as possible, please note that the typical price to ship two jars across the ocean is $30 USD.

For more info, prices & options please visit their website:

Website: http://www.ecojarz.com/

FB page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/EcoJarz/424371460935290?ref=br_tf

One very exciting tidbit they also shared with me is they will soon be adding some new products to their line that will be made in the USA! I thank them for sharing these products with me, and can’t wait to see what the new offerings are!