A Solution for a Serious Addiction

My husband is an addict. It has been going on for as long as I have known him, and is at this point, just a part of who he is. In fact, I never cared for his vice when I met him, but as time has gone on, I too have been known to splurge. Even Finn partakes regularly. Are we drug addicts? Gamblers? Nope. We are sparkling water junkies.
Phew, right? there could be much worse things to be addicted to. However, this sparkling (we call it "sparkly") water habit is not exactly kind to the planet. Each one of those bottles that the sparkly water is packaged in has been made from fossil fuels, has emitted greenhouse gasses during the transport, and is now a bottle that will get recycled, but will consume copious energy in the process. I have blogged several times on how horrible bottled water is for the planet, yet I found myself indulging in it somewhat regularly. OK, well we normally bought cans of sparkling water, not bottles, so it wasn't quite as bad, but still.... a lot of resources used unnecessarily.
We haven't been able to curb this addiction, but we have found a way to deal with it a bit more sustainably. For the holidays, my family got Todd his own sparkling water machine, a sodastream. And man, does this thing rock! It is a small machine that sits on your counter top. You fill up the included bottles with tap water, give it three pumps of the carbonation, and voila! You have sparkling water. No wasted containers, no transportation ramifications, and it is cheaper than buying sparkling water at the store! When the CO2 cartridges run out, you pay for new cartridges and someone comes to your home and exchanges them out for you. So not even the CO2 containers are wasted... they are refilled and used again.
And the water taste refreshingly delicious. And no, I am not getting paid by sodastream (although if anyone from the company happens to read this, a few free CO2 cartridges would be nice).
To read more about the sustainability of sodastream, go to: http://www.sodastreamusa.com/environment.aspx.