to be disappointed in coca cola

[ToTravelIsToLive]

They have announced they will not ditch single use plastic due to them being light weight and resealable. Every second 20,000 drinks in plastic bottles are purchased so even just ditching their mini plastic bottles for glass or alternative would make a huge difference! They are the global leader so could have set a precedent for others. When we were on holiday in Kenya they only gave out glass and you returned your bottle to the shop for a % of your money back. This was even in the most rural areas! In Germany I always remember seeing vending machines that you returned glass bottles to for € so it is possible.

YABU - I like the convenience of plastic and agree with coca cola

YANBU - I would not be put off / I would be more inclined to buy their products if they were in a more environmentally friendly package.

@Retroflex and @katy1213

Sodastream is very popular here in Australia. They have lots of different machines and different flavors that can be bought in the local supermarkets. DH may have bought me one this Christmas as I kept going on about how I asked Santa for one years ago and never got one

@notalwaysalondoner has it right. Plastic waste and carbon emissions- related climate change are two separate issues, I am of the personal opinion that emissions are a far more urgent one.

You'd be surprised in how many cases the alternative to plastic works out as even less environmentally friendly. Paper bags are one example. Unfortunately the reason plastic is so prevalent is not just because companies are cheap arseholes, but because as a material it solves an awful lot of problems that other materials can't. The 'all plastic is bad' message is oversimplified and often just plain wrong. For example, reducing the plastic used in transporting fruit and veg leads to increased food wastage that is worse for the environment in terms of increased carbon emissions.

@MissConductUS I can't even think about people sharing glassware without my mysophobia giving me palpitations! NOT with envy

@retroflex dogs paws are another very good reason glass is not a great alternative.

Yes Serendipity I have not bought that brown sugar water for many many years, I hate their advertising , even more since I watched a TV programme about the company wanting to have 3 taps in every household's kitchen (think about it, hot , cold and brown sugar water).

It does n't surprise me to hear that their 'green' record is bad. The do exploit the poor countries

I don't drink alcohol much but I wouldn't put that stuff in my mouth, there are lots of drinks that are much nicer. Elderflower and lime, ginger beer (still a bit sugary but it's actually good for you). Not like the stuff we're discussing , the Diet one has been shown to increase the likelihood of diabetes too.

Sorry folks can you tell I don't like the stuff Rant over

And as PP said, you can return the gas cylinders by post or at the shops that sell the new ones. They don't charge you a deposit on the new one if you turn in an old one at the same time.

Do sodastream still do the dandelion and burdock flavour? I have good memories of that. It also looks like they do small portable bottles as well as the 1lt now? I may have found my upcoming birthday present this year.

@ppeatfruit but if we did have a third tap we wouldn't need to ship it in plastic

My neurologist advised me to 100% avoid aspartame, I agree with him! Vile stuff!

They have gone up a huge amount in price, but I suppose everything has. The gas can be returned through Collect+ places or swapped at certains stores, but there aren't any near us.

I add squash to fizzy water, so it won't cost for the mixers but it will cost for the gas. It does work out way dearer per litre than you can buy it for, but trying to think of the less recycling aspect of it.

They do both plastic and glass bottles

Lidl is selling a Soda Stream for £44.99 from tomorrow!

Sodastream Cool Sparking Water Maker www.lidl.co.uk/p/p29073?productId=29073&countryCode=GB 

We have hideous hard tap water that is made very slightly drinkable with a bit of CO2 added, and other members of the household like to drink a bit of cola after they've been on night shift, so we swapped to Sodastream last year; there are lots of different models and some work better than others, but overall it was a good purchase and it has massively reduced the amount of plastic bottles we recycle. The Sodastream bottles themselves last for a good few years, so it's the concentrate bottles we still have to put in the recycling.

The concentrates are available in relatively limited flavours compared to when I grew up in the 1970s - dandelion and burdock, for instance, has vanished, and the cream soda is not exactly the taste I remember. Plenty of low-sugar variants out there, but finding concentrates that aren't full of saccharine or whatever is getting more and more difficult. The Range and Lakeland have proved the two most consistent so far if we don't want to use Amazon....The CO2 canisters can be recycled via Sodastream, Argos, the Range and a few other places (depends on factors like where you bought them) and they are cheaper than buying brand new cartridges each time.

A relative worked in a fire extinguisher factory a few years ago refilling the extinguishers bottles so they could be used again so I presume that the Sodastream factory/factories have a similar sort of program.

We'll be experimenting with making our own syrups shortly, and there may be those who'd prefer not to support a company based in Israel, so I have seen suggestions that a simple soda siphon would probably work just as well. You'd still need the CO2 though.

People with older Sodastream models would probably find spares etc on ebay but I'm not so sure about the bottles and whether the CO2 canisters are still the same design.

I was just wondering because the retailers I work for used to sell both the sodastream and the gas refills which were £20 or £10 depending on whether you were returning one. We suddenly stopped selling both and I wondered if it was because they had become unpopular or if disposal had become a problem

@chocolateteapot20 Ah crap! So no dandelion and burdock 🙁 - What flavours would you rate then?

Yes I thought of that Retro But think about the carbon dioxide release with the making and fitting of allthe pipes! As well as the increase in the NHS and dentist use. They should be taxed out of existence actually.

A totally unnecessary product. Kept going by addiction and advertising YEUCH

I think you will find the people voting YABU are the Coca Cola customers. Because it seems most people voting YANBU are not Coca Cola customers.

The Deposit Recovery Scheme (DRS) is planned to go live across the whole of the UK and it'll be in everyone's interest to recycle plastic bottles then (they can be recycled).

You will pay a tax per bottle (say 20p) and if you don't return the bottle that money funds the recycling project. If you do return it, the manufacturers get the plastic back to make more bottles.

At the moment we are viewing plastic being the devil from a littering perspective and what it's doing to our rivers & oceans. The carbon impact (as well as improving on littering) is the thing we should be focusing on.

Disappointing. The glass bottle, deposit scheme was used extensively in many African countries by Coca Cola until the late 90s early 2000s and single use plastic became cheaper and readily available. I was doing some research for a client on if a similar model was popular here and in parts of Asia for their product. Mixed results when polling people and during focus groups.

Well, except those of us who voted YABU because plastic bottles is not the worst thing they do!

To me/us it seems odd to be bothered by plastics when stealing the life and livelihood of many farmers has long been a known outcome of their bottling process!

I've always preferred coke in glass bottles. Cans a distant second. Am I the only one who thinks the plastic makes the coke taste different? I find coke is much more delicious out of glass bottles.

I don't like their stance, but there is nothing I can do as I don't have any of their products anyway!

It's your choice to buy coke or not. I don't. If we have fizzy drinks it's elderflower which comes in glass bottles but I'm not sure that's any more environmentally friendly if you recycle your plastics

Twenty that Lidl one is the old model, so that would make sense, Sodastream obviously offloaded all the old stock to Lidl to make room for the new stuff. They are suddenly everywhere after not being heard of for years

I honestly believe that they should be selling liter bottles of cola syrup so we can go back to the Soda stream style system. I would even prefer a basic post mix system in my house than to keep buying hundreds of bottles every year.

I already have a soda stream. Wonder if I could just buy post mix in a box on eBay and decent it into pump to bottles and make my own any way 🤔

@CuriousaboutSamphire I don't drink coca cola or their other products and am not surprised they appear to have no moral or ethical values and obviously put profit above the conditions of their workers. I was just interested to hear others opinions on their statement today. Tragically I don't think people would stop consuming their products even if they knew the truth