What’s the greenest way to get/make sparkling water?

We’ve had an email from Jennifer asking:

I was on the verge of buying a soda siphon to make my own sparkling water at home – surely much more ecologically sound than buying bottled sparkling water, right? But my husband raised a concern about the used CO2 cartridges? Are they recyclable?

A not-so-quick Google around suggests that they’re metal (typically steel) so can be recycled with normal metal recycling. Anyone know for sure?

When we posted about water filter cartridges three years ago (cor! that’s ages!), we had a number of people making reuse suggestions – how to clean them to get more life out of the filters – are there any tricks like that for soda syphon cartridges?

Even if they couldn’t be reused or recycled though, it still might be worth considering the syphon route because of the amount of energy wasted shipping heavy bottles of water around the place.

Any other suggestions?

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5 Responses to “What’s the greenest way to get/make sparkling water?”


  1. Scott Wells says:

    A DIY carbonator would probably be the best. Directions all over the Internet, but this is the earliest and most comprehensive: http://www.truetex.com/carbonation.htm

  2. Andy says:

    A lot of companies that sell carbonators recycle their own cartridges. You mail them back and they send you filled ones at a discount.

  3. Alice says:

    I just feel so wierd about this when I’m lucky enough to have clean, cold, drinkable water coming out of my household taps. I even flush the toilet with it, while large numbers of people worldwide don’t have access to any safe clean water at all.

    How about first trying to drink non-carbonated tap water instead for three weeks? This may well help you get used to still water so you don’t need to carbonate it at all – by far the greenest option!

    It may well seem odd at first, but that’s only because you’re used to the fizz. You really can re-educate your pallet and change what you like and dislike the taste of.

    If you find that tap water tastes too chlorinated, try leaving a jug of it to stand for a few hours before you drink it. The chlorine gas then escapes leaving it taste much nicer – certainly much nicer than the horrible metallic taste that carbonated water has!

  4. Emma says:

    Add a pinch of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) to your glass, give it a quick stir and that’s all you need! Good for your digestive system too…

  5. Jessica says:

    The cartridges can be recycled, I know people who do it. Talk to your waste management company first!



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