Is Kohl’s new Sodastream really that environmentally friendly”?
Kohl’s is now carrying the do-it-yourself fountain drink machines made by Sodastream. They are calling it “precycling” claiming that by not buying bottled, or canned soft drinks you are saving the environment as much as by recycling.
“Precycling” means you are cutting out waste on the front end. By using Sodastream products you can make your own soft drinks, energy drinks and carbonated water at home. By making your own soft drinks supposedly you reduce your carbon footprint on both ends of the drink chain.
Considering that the machines themselves are made out of plastic and metal you are still buying products with a carbon footprint. The drink machines will eventually be tossed at the end of their life cycle like every other old coffee pot, Ginsu knife and Ronco gadget of the week.
The Container Recycling Institute has research that shows that in 2006, 215 billion beverages in glass, plastic and aluminum containers were purchased. Of those 215 beverages, only 66 percent of the containers were recycled. Although Sodastream says that creating your own energy drinks and soft drinks will cut down on such, that supposes several things.
The company has six different beverage machines all of which will eventually break down, become obsolete or not used. Sixty different syrups including cola, diet cola, and ginger ale are available. Just as Pepsi, Coca Cola and Diet Rite all produce colas, they aren’t the same. The syrups produced for Sodastream will not include any secret formulas and will probably require some experimentation to get the right taste. The syrup containers will be tossed in the garbage when empty probably heading for a landfill. Besides, will your kids really want to take with them and drink these “generic” homemade drinks?
“Carbonators” (CO2 canisters) come with the system and depending on the size, will carbonate 60 to 130 liters of drink. Although the empty CO2 containers are exchanged for full ones supposedly paying only for the charge of a refill there is still some carbon footprint created in the transportation and exchange of the bottles. Eventually, these will be tossed out as the canisters become bent, broken or otherwise unusable.
There are also an assortment of different drink bottles and carafes that work with the Sodastream system. All of the bottles are “dishwasher-PEN bottles” with a three-year lifespan. This doesn’t include replacement bottles for those that will inevitably be lost or broken in unforeseen ways. These too will eventually wind up in landfills.
Although the syrups will produce 12 liters per bottle of carbonated or uncarbonated soft drinks, someone has to make and bottle the drinks that you and your family will be drinking. Use your own tap water, you add syrup, carbonate to taste and then bottle it.
How simple will this process really be? Everyone will have their own preferences and mixtures will need to be just right. Bottling multiple drinks per day for your family will be time consuming. Each person could make their own but then you would need to take turns and who cleans up in the end?
Also, how many bottles will you need to buy and store in order to truly cut out bought beverages? After the initial thrill of playing with your new machine, will it wind up on a shelf, in the garage, or stuck in a closet like all of those other fun sounding kitchen gadgets that were going to save you money but required more time and mess than you really wanted to put up with?
As with so many “green” products or behaviors that are popping up these days, the reality may not be as wonderful as advertised. Bread makers are great for people who really want to make their own bread but they do take time and create a mess. The same goes for cappuccino machines and other kitchen gadgets that have cropped up in homes as birthday gifts, Christmas gifts, and wedding gifts.
The initial thrill and novelty wears off. Eventually, your enthusiasm wanes and you prefer the convenience of picking up what you want at the store rather than making a mess at home that needs to be cleaned up. It’s that cleaning up the mess part that tends to get on people’s nerves.
Kohl’s is now selling Sodastream’s drink machines. Do you really want to spend over $90 for something that may wind up being nothing more than a home science project?
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April 20th, 2009
Do you work for FOX entertainment “news”? Like them, you just raise specious questions about a proposal you apparently distrust, without providing any indication that you’ve actually investigated the issue. I realize I live in an eccentric city (Cambridge, MA), but even in the surrounding areas, sodas are disdained while kids often turn to seltzer in its place. Meanwhile, “green” is cool, and kids are demanding recycling.
This product is not going to convert someone interested in the product for novelty, but what about committed environmentalists who already carry empty bottles home for reuse? I had hoped to find out the breakeven point both environmentally and economically, and read the article without gaining any new insight into the questions I already had.
Of course every product will break, but the more important consideration is if it will generate an overall benefit during its useful lifespan. I don’t understand the point of your article.
April 21st, 2009
I share the same thoughts as Mike and would like to add a little more information I’ve gathered, as well as my personal situation.
The carbonating bottles are exchanged much like LPG tanks. I’ve seen a few adapters on ebay allowing users to refill their own bottles at paintball suppliers for a fraction of the cost. I’m a little concerned that the quality of CO2 from a paintball supply store might not meet the quality for human food consumption, but I thought I’d just throw that out there.
My wife and I love to drink sparkling mineral water. Though it’s costly ($1-$4 per liter) and we’re left with a bunch of empty glass bottles, we can’t discovered an alternative until now. I’m going to give sodastream a chance, especially with the $20 rebate I received in Sunday’s newspaper.
May 4th, 2009
I bought a sodastream a few weeks ago. I LOVE it! I love carbonated drinks and went through 2 liter bottles of diet soda like crazy. I found out I could drink just carbonated water with or without a little lemon juice, so I was hoping I could replace my diet pepsi habit with the sodastream water and lemon juice. So far its working great! Im drinking A LOT more water, getting less artificial sweetener from the diet sodas, making a LOT less trips to the store, throwing away a LOT less soda bottles, and transporting a LOT less soda bottles into the house. Just wish I could find that $20 rebate!
May 5th, 2009
My family has been using a Soda Stream for two months, and we LOVE it too. My husband drinks sparkling water and I am so glad that I am not carrying all those bottles back and forth from the supermarket anymore.
None of us drink soda, so I can’t address your concerns with taste. I’m pretty happy with just water, but if you have someone in your family who ‘needs’ sparkling water, this is a very green solution. The frame that holds the CO2 canisters is very light (so it’s ‘carbon footprint’ is modest) and while it will someday become trash, I suspect we have already saved that much plastic by the bottles we have reused at home rather than purchased at the store.
May 18th, 2009
I read this article thinking that it would actually give a conclusion as to whether this product decreases environmental waste and I completely agree with Mike’s comments. This article is cynical and utterly stupid at best. There is no point to the article except to complain. It was such a waste of my time to read it that I was compelled to leave a comment…my first ever on the internet. Time to hire a new writer. I just bought a Sodastream from Boater’s World for $10 on sale after $20 rebate.
September 7th, 2009
I have had endless – ENDLESS – problems receiving exchanges for sodastream cartridges. For example, I put in an order on July 17 that I did not receive until mid- August, more than 30 days later. Customer complaints went unanswered, then they refused to call my cell and would only call my home number. Now they have charged me twice for the one exchange and my credit card has been hit with currency exchange fees. These people are dangerous and should not be in business in the USA.
September 28th, 2009
I have never done this before, so here goes:
What a stupid and pointless article !
I grew up with a Sodastream, which we had for over 10 years. I bought one as soon as they became available here. I just love the statement “the convenience of picking up what you want at the store” (from the article). This truly sums up our apathetic society. Is this the type of attitude to have in this day and age?
Besides, I enjoy being able to make what I want, when I want it. Maybe it’s a control thing.
October 12th, 2009
I must admit to be very conflicted about the sodastream product. I have had a machine for about 5 months and love the machine and the sparkling water. And not having to carry bottled water home from the market and recycle the empties. BUT SODASTREAM USA IS HORRIBLE TO DEAL WITH. Though their website promises 5-7 day home delivery of the CO2 cartridges, this never happens. They charge your card at the time that you place your order but do not ship the order for weeks afterward. Their is always an excuse. “We were implementing a new computer system.” “All warehouses were closed for inventory last week.” And do not even ask them to give you a date by which you will receive the order that you paid for weeks ago.
December 31st, 2009
Yes, I absolutely want and use this product. This works well, provides a quality drinking product and keeps dozens of glass bottles out of my recycling container monthly. Virtually nothing in our lives is totally free from impacting the environment – but that is no reason not to take the most steps we can to be responsible.
January 20th, 2010
You really could drive a truck through Wilson’s argument. It’s actually quite funny – there’s no valid scientific or logical thought in it although it pretends to be authoritative. Why bother arguing with that piece of crap?
Personally I’ve been using a Sodastream in Australia for several years and our machine and bottles are still going strong. We just swap canisters at a local dept store once every 6 weeks or so. We don’t touch the crappy diabetes and preservative-laced syrups though – just drink it plain or with a splash of fruit juice – my kids no longer really like commercial softdrinks as a result. My 6 year old son now actually squeezes a real lemon into his cos he prefers it that way – go figure!
And I’m *not* buying and lugging perhaps hundreds of soda bottles home and putting them in the landfill every year. Imagine if everyone did that?
But yeah the service does suck a bit – I think it must be because they’re owned by Cadbury Schweppes. Perhaps it’s deliberate.
January 30th, 2010
I love fizzy drink, especially since giving up beer. The real beauty of the SodaStream is that I can make fizz using water from our local spring, flavoured with my homemade honey and elderflower cordial, or with sugar-free organic cordials – all in the comfort of my own home – or van or wherever I happen to be, because unlike so many kitchen gadgets it doesn’t require electricity.
SodaStreams are sturdy and resilient, as are the bottles. I have never given up on a bottle, glass or plastic. The cylinders are metal, refillable (that’s rare these days) and if they eventually – what, rust through? – they can be recycled.
I have been using my various machines (all bought secondhand at car boot sales) on a daily basis for decades, and supplying my friends and family with third-hand machines each time I upgrade. They are brilliant!
March 8th, 2010
I have had my sodastream for over a year now. It was a return at Sam’s Club so I only paid $40 for the whole set. The CO2 bottle had never been opened and neither had the syrups. I figured why not… The rest is history.
I LOVE this thing, but then again I used to run a paintball business and had extra 20lb CO2 tanks lying around. Paintball grade CO2 is actually food grade. It just depends on how cleanly you set up your equipment. In reality when you go to get a 20lb soda tank refilled they use the same connectors and CO2 source.
In either case, once my sodastream ran out of CO2 I opened the valve and turned it down on a lathe. Then I modified it to accept a quick disconnect that could connect directly to the 20lb tank. It works wonders. And on occasion you can find extra bottles and syrups on sale. This results in a practically endless supply of soda at an incredibly low price! I calculate that I may be paying 5 cents a can at most!
March 8th, 2010
I also forgot to mention that because the diet syrups from soda stream uses Splenda instead of aspartame the artificial sweetener is stable and won’t break down into the by-products that can cause blindness. In addition if you go to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov (for those in research: pubmed) you will find many research articles on the detrimental memory effects of aspartame. Splenda has no negative articles (I qualify this though by saying that Splenda is new. So maybe no one has done the research yet.) =)
April 22nd, 2010
Well – there are certainly mixed feelings about SodaStream (the company and the product) in this forum. I wanted one. Like the guy above (Alexander:
March 8th, 2010), if I’d found one at Sam’s for forty bucks, I would-a-sprung for it.
You all deserve to know that there are competitors out there: Mr. Butler’s (of India) & various chinese mfrs produce similar kitchen countertop units. FizzGiz.com also makes a carbonation system for under $30 that deserves your attention. It requires nothing proprietary whatsoever. “Made in America” – They are the only U.S. based mfr I know of.
June 30th, 2010
I have owned a SodaStream machine since January 2009 and I use it daily. Although I knew I was making a leap of faith investing in it, it has been one of the best purchases I have ever made.
We were going through one or two 2-liter bottles of seltzer every week. Even at store-brand prices, that’s $2/week. Then we had to recycle the empties at the store to get the bottle deposit back (because if we just threw them in our recycle bin, we would be giving up the bottle deposit.)
So how much does it save us? Well, 1 liter of tapwater is nearly free. One fill from the carbonator is 22.7 cents, call it 23 cents, or 25 cents with the cost of tapwater included. So two liters would cost about 50 cents. That’s half price.
Add in sodamix, and you’re adding 83 cents for two liters (assuming 12 liters and $5 per bottle of syrup mix.) So, $1.33 for two liters. Not a huge savings, but still slightly cheaper than the national average. (You can obtain certain flavors of sodamix more cheaply at Kohls, to bring the cost per 2L down to about $1.17.)
Now talk about convenience: Nothing to buy at the grocery store, nothing to bring home, nothing to return for bottle deposit. I can recycle the tiny sodamix containers with my normal recycling, which is far more convenient than taking soda bottles to a redemption center. In a very small amount of cupboard space, I am storing 15 different flavors of soda that I can consume at my whim, within seconds. To me, this is the very definition of convenience.
It isn’t a “novelty” and it isn’t collecting dust on a shelf. There isn’t anything for the family to “argue” about cleaning up. Cleanup is just rinsing out the bottle when you’re done and refilling it with water and putting it back in the fridge. It takes 15 seconds.
I have never had any problems or delay in receiving my CO2 refills or sodamix orders from Sodastreamusa, though I will admit I did write to them once and never received a reply, so it doesn’t surprise me that there are some complaints about their customer service.
Also, you can’t really take the soda with you, like you could grab a soda can or 20-oz bottle from the fridge. (I guess you could pour it into a water bottle, but it would probably lose most of its fizz fairly quickly.) In my opinion, it isn’t really designed to replace small bottles and cans, but rather, two-liter bottles. In other words, it is intended for home use.
Susan Wilson (the article’s author) clearly does not own one of these machines, and was just writing for the sake of creating controversy. Shame on her. Home soda machines definitely do have a positive environmental impact. The bottom line is that this thing provides huge convenience and saves us time, money, and solid waste volume. Period.
July 21st, 2010
LOVE MY SODASTREAM!!!!! I don’t use any of the Sodastream syrups. I eat whole, healthful foods with no added sweeteners of any kind, and my beverage of choice is Sodastream-carbonated water with organic lemon juice, nothing else. I was lugging home multiple 2-liter bottles of carbonated water and having to recycle too much plastic. Now I just carbonate my tap water, and every 2 months I switch out my carbon dioxide container for a new one at Sur la Table. I’ve been without any added sweeteners for 2 1/2 years, I’ve been using my Sodastream for about 9 months. It’s been working so well for me and I’ve been enjoying it so much, this routine isn’t going to change. It’s part of the way I live.
And I agree with the above comments – this article was just a long, unsubstantiated cynical rant. We need people to try to be green any way they can. A lot of people being a little bit green helps the planet a hell of a lot more than a lot of people not doing anything green at all because the things they thought of trying weren’t green enough.
August 1st, 2010
My wife and I decided to get a SodaStream after seeing on in my brothers house. We both thought it would be a good choice, so took the plunge.
I read the above article, and as I did so realized the author had never tried the product before being so critical. They sounded like so many people we know that are afraid of change or something different. The naysayers.
Well, we have had it all of 1 month and are absolutely loving it! I know I am drinking more water, albeit with syrup, but it sure tastes gooood! In fact, between my wife and daughter, we have consumed enough to empty one co2 container (carbonator), two containers of diet coke syrup and all the sample syrups too! Looks like we have a winner!
Our 22 year old daughter has had such fun creating her own soda, my wife and I are considering getting her one when she goes back to college in the Fall. Our son will most definitely get one for his first apt. In essence, we would not give our children anything we our selves did not approve of but most importantly thought was unsafe.
All the best.
August 4th, 2010
Hello,
This is a question to Sodastream users: I just purchased the kit from JC Penney and I am a bit disappointed that the Soda Stream Syrups have Splenda. What are you guys mixing it with?
August 14th, 2010
We’ve been using Soda Club (Sodastream) for many years (5 or 6). My wife drinks diet cola instead of coffee every morning.
We buy syrups in bulk and they keep. The machine and bottles are sufficiently strudy that we have not broken one yet. And, we keep one our boat which has been banged around alot. Exchanging the CO2 cartriges is a little cumbersome. Our closest retailer (Camping World) only exchanges the 60L size rather than the 110L. We stock up on those too. We live in rural America, so our biggest savings is the reduction in trash and long trips to the grocery store.
I don’t think that the author of this story actually used the machine for any period of time. My wife and I like the Sodastream flavors, but I can understand why some people don’t. Splenda isn’t for everyone. I’ve heard about other people carbonating juices, but you have to be careful so that they don’t spew. Let them sit for a little while before taking the bottle out of the machine.
August 30th, 2010
Seems like everyone here is talking about SodaStream. I know, I know. The article is doing some SodaStream bashing. But there are lots of soda maker manufacturers worldwide. SodaStream is not the only one. They just spread more google SPAM than anyone else (known as astroturfing).
August 30th, 2010
Here are a few. I could not get their URLs to post here.
Sodamistic of Canada
IONOX Soda Water Dispensers
CIE Group of China
U-FIZZ of Canada
Fizz Giz Handheld Portable Soda Maker
Ningbo Weirsen Electrical Co. Ltd of China
Mr. Butler’s of India
Soda-Club Ltd. (Israeli company in Mishor Adumim on the West Bank occupied territory)
Precious Products, LLC (sole U.S. distributor for Mr. Butler’s of India)
ECOGAM Sarl / Soda Quick of France
SodaStream USA (owned by Soda-Club Ltd. since 1998)
Softel Machines Limited of Gujarat, India
My Pop Soda Shoppe
Right Choice DrinKit of Seattle, WA (looks an awful lot like the Softel machines from India)
AQVIA Danish Water Machines of Denmark
Wassermaxx (Norwegian company owned by SodaClub /SodaStream since 2009)
Shanghai Channel Oversea Limited – EastCooler dot-com
Jumbo Soda Maker TS-808 by Top Summit Ltd., China
Cixi Topure Filtration Co., Ltd. – Cixi City, Ningbo, China
September 16th, 2010
Echoing the numerous points made in prior comments:
we love our SodaStream and have had it for 9 months and use it daily
we have three friends we know of who have the same opinion
while true that the device will break at some point, and it has a carbon footprint, compared to costs of at least thousands of soda bottles, or worse, cans that get recycled at a lower rate than stated dwarf the device’s footprint.
We have done one exchange by SodaStream, and it took two days, but there are also local stores where we can do the exchange at will; assuming we’re there once every few months anyway, this is reuse, not recycling — a far better proposition (and in the end, recycled for sure).
Convenience is a no-brainer. I always have seltzer available.
We use tap water, and don’t add sweetener — a squeeze of an (actual) lime is refreshing.
I know and use SodaStream. I am sure there are others that are as good.
November 3rd, 2010
Sodastream has been around in England since the 70s at least. I remember using them one as a kid in the late 70s/early 80s. The bottles were smaller individual servings, and us kids loved using them. Years later, I found my mother’s old machine and tried it – and it worked! So even after at least 10 years, it was functional! I don’t think these are going to “break” in a year or two as the reviewer suggests. I’ve just bought one of the newer models, and I’m really excited to rekindle my youth!
November 24th, 2010
We have owned a Sodastream for about 4 months now. It has its good points and bad but overall we are very happy with it. We have 4 children (all with different tastes) and each has their own carbonating bottle. Prior to getting the Sodastream, at least one person would be upset about what soda flavors were in the fridge. Now no more “you never get the kind I like.” No more half full cups of soda to throw out since each can use his own bottle so we save on waste. Our only complaint is not being able to get 130L carbonators locally, we have to mail order them.
January 6th, 2011
Obviously you have never used a Sodastream machine but I liked the way you described how messy it would be and how much clean-up would take place after using it. If you had ever used one you would know that it takes just a couple seconds to make some soda and there is really nothing to clean up, it’s very nice actually. We have cut WAY back on bottles and cans around the house and never even purchase beverages from the store anymore, unless it’s milk, juice or alcohol. We also use it at least once a day, usually more, so it’s definately worth the money and it isn’t something we’ve just “tossed aside” and forgotten about.
I calculated out what we usually spent a year on carbonated water and it came out to double the amount of money it costs to use our Sodastream, so it really is pretty economical!
So as the saying goes, don’t knock it ’til you try it. If you try it and still hate it, then you can write an article like this. Until then, maybe you should just stick to the things you know.
March 9th, 2011
Question:
I absolutely LOVE my Sodastream!
I can’t, however, seem to get the top of the bottles completely clean. I drink directly out of the bottles and there is a faint smell. It’s the same smell that you find if you refill a plastic water bottle.
I clean the bottles by soaking them in warm water and soap after EVERY use.
Any hints as to how to eliminate that smell?
March 18th, 2011
Use hot water and baking soda after using dish soap and do not put in the d/w. That should make the bottles smell better.
Now then we have been using the sodastream for 5 months now, love it and I just bought a 20# c02 cylinder and a fill kit used it today for the first time GREAT and no more going to the dept. store to buy/exchange an overpriced canister of carbon dioxide
a 20 pound tank cost 22 bucks to have refilled
compared to 16 dollars for 14 oz.
I also buy coke syrup from a discount store way cheaper than buying the syrupfrom sodaclub/stream
but I mainly drink carbonated water as it quenches the thirst, and we all drink more water now.
So it is a win win in my book
November 15th, 2011
I do believe all of the ideas you have offered for your post. They are really convincing and will definitely work. Still, the posts are too brief for starters. Could you please extend them a bit from next time? Thanks for the post.