House v. Plastic Part I: Sparkling Water

I'm calling this Part I because plastic is my family's first bad habit to kick. (Why? Because plastic typically does not biodegrade and once discarded it's just hanging around our planet maybe indefinitely. And unlike glass or metal, recycled plastic has limited applications after it's initial use. But I don't want to get depressed!)

It's easier for me to start with talking about an old plastic bad habit that I already addressed, even if a baby step. It's also a change that doesn't really involve sacrifice so feels like an easy way to ease into eliminating plastic use. Two years ago, I used to purchase one or more 2-liter plastic bottles of Talking Rain sparkling water almost every time I stepped into a grocery store filling up my eco-do-gooder canvas shopping bags. I would get maybe like 4 a week or > 400 large plastic bottles a year from this product alone.  I'd think nothing of draining a bottle when the contents got flat and chucking it into the recycling bin with no consideration for it's permanence.  During this period, I probably simultaneously looked on at others in horror -- and in judgment -- for being seen walking around with plastic bottles of water in smaller single-use sizes. But in hindsight, I was in affect just as reckless.  I'm not sure there is a difference at all in fact.  

This device changed everything:

Instead of just drinking still water which might be the real solution, we invested in a soda maker.  Specifically a SodaStream soda maker which lets you make basically an unlimited amount of sparkling water or flavored soda at home inexpensively.  Here's what the manufacturer's site says about the environmental impact - for what it's worth .There is no batteries or electricity involved. I use my SodaStream almost daily to make club soda and add just a little lemon juice. You carbonate the water with CO2 from a an aluminum cylinder, or "carbonator" that comes with your maker.  You can exchange the empty CO2 cylinders for full ones. 

In my opinion, the most convenient and efficient place to do this in Seattle is at Bartell Drugs for ~$15. (I've tried it at Crate & Barrel and they had to find a Manager to figure out what I was talking about.) I exchange our CO2 about every 2 months.  It's nice to know that Bartell Drugs is a local, albeit large, family owned business based in Seattle. 

You can buy at Crate & Barrel and Amazon and I've seen them at Costco in the SODO. There are for sure less expensive versions.

I found it interesting that according to wikipedia, 20% of Swedish households own a SodaStream.  

Here's what the CO2 cylinder look like:

Ideally there wouldn't be the plastic seal on the full canisters that needs to be broken off and discarded upon each first use.  Ideally the "carbonating" bottles would not be plastic but instead stainless steel. But for the time being our house has larger issues to work through before getting hard-core on eliminating this pleasure.