The Sodastream products had struck my fancy for a few holiday seasons. Several blogs had been giving them away and unfortunately, I hadn’t won one yet. So, I was excited when the company agreed to be part of my Green Gift Giving series this season!

Sodastream’s products are a great addition to the home or office making green steps:

How Does SodaStream Help the Environment?

SodaStream is an “Active Green” product, meaning that consumers  are actively reducing their CO₂ footprint every time they make soda  or sparkling water at home instead of buying it from the store. The more the system is used on a daily basis, the more CO₂ footprint the user actively saves. (This differs from “Passive Green” products, which use green-friendly production processes, but their products are not inherently helping the consumers save on their daily footprint.)

Because SodaStream uses water straight from the tap, the system makes traditional store-bought beverage bottles obsolete. That means less plastic manufactured, less plastic waste is created, and fewer bottled beverages must be transported from manufacturers to distributors to stores to homes.

Globally, 206 billion liters of bottled water were consumed in 2008 (Zenith International Global Bottled Water Report, 2008). The energy required to make water bottles in the US only, is equivalent to 17 million barrels of oil (Container Recycling Institute, 2002).
According to the US Recycling Institute, more than 80% of bottles in the US do not get recycled and end up in landfills. Also, an estimated 4.7 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions were produced in the process of replacing the 134 billion bottles and cans not recycled in 2005.

Using your own home carbonation system means:

• Less packaging waste from cans and bottles.
• Less pollution caused by transport of bottled beverages.

One SodaStream carbonator makes 60 or 110 liters, equivalent to 170 or 310 aluminum cans! When empty, the carbonator is refilled and reused, ready to make more fizzy and tasty soda whenever you want it.

I was sent the Fountain Jet Starter Kit in black and silver to review. It came with 2 1 liter blottles, 1 carbonator, 6 flavored syrups from their regular and diet line, 2 of their Sparkling Naturals, and a 3 pack of MyWater Flavor Essence retail $99.95.

The Fountain Jet was super simple to get together, just insert the carbonator and you’re ready to go. No batteries, plugs or assembly required.  The first and only problem with the product I had: when asked which flavors I wanted to try I mentioned that I am a Diet Coke Gal, so since I was the main reviewer be sure to include that. No Diet Cola syrup was included. Since I don’t really like any other soda I had to leave taste testing to the rest of the family. So far Root Beer has been the family hit, Orange falling close behind. My Mother-in-law really liked the Sparkling Naturals Apple Mango, we sent her home with a large glass and a stainless steel bottle full.

Now, I have found myself drinking something I HATED when I was younger… Seltzer Water. I haven’t tried any of the flavor essences, yet. It’s next on the list (when there is a spare bottle not filled with Root Beer), but I have a new found craving for seltzer and to be able to make it in seconds is really cool! My son took a swig of it (probably thought it was lemon-lime) I heard him gag! That’ll teach him to drink out of the bottle! How many times do I have to say it??

The guys in the house go through soda fast, so this is great. No running out of drinks, running to the store, we’re reducing waste from store bought sodas, too. This has many pros for sure! SodaStream is available at several retail locations and you can search for a location near you on the site. I’ll need to take a trip to a location near me to buy some of the diet cola, then I can start to really enjoy the SodaStream.

This will make a great green gift for the soda lover in your life. So why not try to win one? Yep, SodaStream is giving one of my readers a Fountain Jet to keep or give as a gift this holiday season!

Do as many of the below as you wish and leave a separate comment for each one:

• Visit Soda Stream or the Ms. Fizzy Blog and comment here on which flavor or drink recipe you would love to try if you won the Fountain Jet.
• Blog about this giveaway and link back to this post.
• Follow @sodastreamusa on Twitter or become a Fan on Facebook and comment that you did.
• Tweet this giveaway
• Stumble this giveaway
• Use other forms of social networking to spread the word about this giveaway.
• Subscribe to my feed to stay up to date with the latest from Eco-Office Gals.
• Buy anything from SodaStream and comment 5 times that you did! (I will confirm)

The deadline for entering is Monday, 11/22/10 at 8pm EST at which time one winner will be randomly chosen.  Please don’t forget to leave a separate entry for each one of the above that you do and any entries that show obvious laziness i.e. a simple “Thanks for the great giveaway” will not be published therefore not counted. It’s just not fair for the people that do know how to follow simple directions. US residents only. Thanks!

(In compliance with the new FTC Guildlines, please note that this is a sponsored post.  I was given these products to test and review free of charge.  However, I was not paid for the review and the opinions are my own.)

Congrats…. um anonymous… at least you left an email

Comment:

I would love to try the Pete’s choice and the orange.

Post from: Eco-Office Gals

Green Gift Giving: Soda Stream Review & Giveaway!

EarthTalk^®
From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: Apparently boxed wine (instead of bottled) is becoming all the rage for environmental reasons. What are the eco-benefits of boxed wine over bottled? — Justin J., Los Angeles, CA

With more and more wineries offering organic varieties to lower their eco-footprint, it’s no surprise that they’re looking at the environmental impacts of their packaging as well. The making of conventional glass bottles (and the corks that cap them) uses significant quantities of natural resources and generates considerable pollution. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the process of manufacturing glass not only contributes its share of greenhouse gas emissions but also generates nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and tiny particulates that can damage lung tissue when breathed in.

Beyond manufacturing, the transport of wine in glass bottles across the country and around the world also takes its environmental toll. According to wine writer Tyler Colman, upwards of 90 percent of American wine is produced on the West Coast, but then shipped to the East Coast where the majority of wine consumers live. Trucking all these heavy glass bottles generates a much larger carbon footprint, ounce-for-ounce than the transportation of much lighter boxed wine. Almost half the weight of an ordinary case of wine comes from the bottles; about 95 percent of the weight of a case of boxed wine is the wine itself.

“A standard wine bottle holds 750 milliliters of wine and generates about 5.2 pounds of carbon-dioxide emissions when it travels from a vineyard in California to a store in New York,” reports Colman, who blogs at DrVino.com. “A 3-liter box generates about half the emissions per 750 milliliters.”  He concludes that switching to wine in a box “for the 97 percent of wines that are made to be consumed within a year” would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about two million tons, or the equivalent of removing 400,000 cars from the roads.

According to the Wine Group, the third largest wine company in the world by volume and a big advocate for switching away from glass bottles, there are other advantages to boxed wine (which typically includes a plastic bag within a cardboard box). The vacuum packaging of boxed wines allows the contents to stay fresh for up to six weeks in the fridge once the seal is broken and the first glass has been poured. The Wine Group has launched the “Better Wines Better World” website in an attempt to curry public favor for technologically advanced, environmentally friendly and economically practical boxed wines.

Still, despite the benefits, boxed wine may still be a tough pill to swallow for many wine connoisseurs still bent on tradition. “Even those traditionalists who are coming around to the idea that maybe screw caps are fine for some wines, balk at the idea of a cellar full of cardboard boxes,” says wine writer and vineyard owner Lee Asbell. “It is difficult to imagine how wine service at fine-dining establishments would handle such a change.” For now, boxed wine is still the domain of cheaper brands. But that could all change as more and more wine makers and drinkers take up the mantle of saving the Earth.

CONTACTS: Better Wines Better World, www.betterwinesbetterworld.com. DrVino, www.drvino.com.

SEND YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTIONS TO: EarthTalk^®, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php. EarthTalk^® is now a book! Details and order information at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalkbook.

photo credit: Bota Box

Post from: Eco-Office Gals

Eco-Benefits of Boxed Wine