File:Soda Club Machine.jpg

I'm continuing to work on my Live Earth Pledge. This seems like an odd contribution to the cause, but my husband and I drink at least a liter a day of club soda, seltzer, or sparkling water. We were buying it in plastic bottles and putting the bottles in the recycle bin. In addition to adding more plastic to the world's problems, those bottles had to be shipped from somewhere, and that takes fuel, which adds to the greenhouse gasses.

Last week I went searching for a better way, and I believe I found it. This machine (not electric) lets us make our own club soda by injecting C02 (eeek!) into a bottle of our own water. We can make it as bubbly as we want, and we can even add flavors. (My husband wants to try adding Coke syrup, but not if it's sweetened with HFCS.) And we use the same bottles over and over again! No more tossing plastic bottles in the recycle bin. Yay!!!

I've made about half a dozen bottles so far. I'm just getting the technique and proportions down now. It works just fine, and I feel really good about drinking our own local water (filtered) rather than water shipped in from some other place.

PS It's a lot cheaper, too!