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Sparkling "Magic" Water
You can tell where someone is from by how they ask for a "fizzy" drink.  Some call it pop, others soda and some ask for it by the name brand.  But no matter what we call it, we Americans love our carbonated beverages.  On average each of us consumes 600 cans or bottles of soda and sparkling water a year.  If you are one of those consumers, you can help save 17.5 million barrels of oil by giving up your up bottled or canned drinks and switching to carbonated drinks that can be made at home.    

Regular tap water can be transformed into sparkling water or soda in just seconds.  SodaStream mixes have less sugar, carbs, sodium and caffeine than store-bought sodas.  They come in 25 different flavors of sodas and energy drinks (which contain added vitamins and minerals).  Because it's homemade, you can adjust the flavor and fizz intensity to meet your tastes.  You can also add juices to make your own unique sparkling drinks.  

What Makes It Green?
A typical American will toss away over 1,500 aluminum cans (and/or hundreds of plastic 2-liter bottles) over three years - while a SodaStream owner will use just one or two reusable carbonating bottles or carafes that come with the home soda maker.  You will also help cut down on energy used in creating and transporting the bottles and cans used with store-bought beverages.

The highly concentrated Soda mix syrups helps to dramatically reduce landfill waste because a single bottle of mix will make 12 liters of soda (the equivalent of 34 cans or six 2-liter bottles). The SodaStream home soda maker operates completely on power supplied by the compressed air in the carbonator - an easily renewable fuel source.  The empty carbonators can be returned to be cleaned, inspected and refilled with CO2 drawn naturally from the air.  

What You Can Do
Consider switching from store bought soda and sparkling beverages to homemade SodaStream drinks.  You can buy them online at www.sodastreamusa.com or in many retail stores - use the store locator online to find one near you.

Approximately 1.5 million barrels of oil are needed to make the plastic for soda bottles each year - that amount of oil could power 100,000 cars for a year.

My family all loved the SodaStream drinks they tried.  My husband liked the diet cola (he thought that it tasted a lot like a major national brand's soda).  My kids' favorite was orange, which suprised me because they don't usually like "fizzy" drinks.