Water – not the flat stuff, but sparkling, soda, fizzy, bubbly water. We drink a lot of it at my house, so last year I researched greener options to stop bringing all those plastic bottles into the house. I wrote about my find last summer and want to give an update. The solution was a home sparkling water maker from SodaStream. It’s a small machine that holds a canister of CO2 – you fill their specially designed bottles up with tap water, pump the handle a few times – instant sparkling water. Tastes great. But is it really the same as … yes, it is, it’s carbonated water.
Last week I counted how much sparkling water we drank in my household – 18 liters. That’s a lot of bottles saved, true, but it’s also a lot of money in my pocket, and no lugging cases of sparkling water in the house.
So what’s the catch? Not much – you buy this machine ($80-225 depending on the model), about the size of a coffee maker. It comes with two CO2 cartridges – each one seems to last about a month in my house. When we have two empty cartridges, you log onto the website, order two replacements ($30 total). Then you leave your empties on your doorstep and a few days later, they’ve dropped off two full ones. The part I like the best is that the cartridges are re-filled and reused. About the only thing that gets thrown out is small protective plastic cap, almost nothing in the landfill, nothing that needs to be recycled.
Soda drinker? The company also has mixes to make your own soda. Personally I used to drink a lot of Snapple – with the sparkling water always available, I find I drink it instead – even less bottles, less money, and a few less calories to boot.
Now available at Williams Sonoma too – check out their website – 44 people have reviewed the gadget. The average of all reviews is 5 stars out of 5 – I’d have to agree!
Tags: green tip, green tips, home soda maker, soda water, sparkling water
