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Comment by AdmiralAsshat | Hacker News Reader

I managed to completely stop buying regular water bottles in favor of using a refillable vacuum-insulated bottle at all times (except for a handful that I keep in the car for emergencies), but I've noticed the plastic bottles are starting to creep back in ever since I stopped drinking sodas and moved to sparkling water. I guess I could switch to canned Perrier or even the glass bottles, but they're harder to find.

I suppose next year I'll just bite the bullet and buy a Soda Stream (or some kind of BDS-approved equivalent).

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There are homemade soda carbonators for sale on ebay that can be a pretty good deal. Something like this is what I have: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Kegman-Seltzer-Making-Bottling-Kit-...

The price is basically the same as sourcing the parts (regulator, tubing, tank, etc) yourself, it comes pre-assembled, that size CO2 tank will last a while (around a year for us with multiple people in the hot south), costs $15 to refill, and you can dial up/down the pressure to change the bubbliness of your soda.

It's also useful for seating tubeless tires if you ride mountain bikes. :)

I don't really understand why most if not all bottles don't use aluminum instead of plastic. I get that it's a marketing thing, but I see no practical reason why aluminum couldn't be used more often. That doesn't fix the littering of the ocean issue, but I guess if I had to pick one over the other I'd rather the ocean get trashed with aluminum than with plastic.

Also, do you need Perrier brand specifically? I haven't seen that come in cans, but now there are more brands than ever of sparkling water that come in cans, which is what I most often buy.

> I don't really understand why most if not all bottles don't use aluminum instead of plastic.

Because aluminium is a lot more expensive and difficult to manufacture at scale than plastic. It's also a lot more reusable, but reusing aluminium costs energy, and reusing glass bottles requires either energy to melt it, or an extensive recycling / reusing infrastructure (like with beer bottles over here).

Re: sparkling water, there's water fountains that can produce sparkling water on the fly now. Ask your employer to get those installed.

Something I know a boat load about. You are correct glass I would say is the worse for recycling (unless like you stated there's an infrastructure in place). At municipal recycling facilities (MRF) glass is the first to come off the recycling line. It gets smashed up and anything that is roughly 3inches or smaller ends up in the glass, so a lot of contamination.

Aluminum is easier to recycle, but you cannot melt down cans (UBC's) back into cans without blending metals as they consist of two different aluminum (the top and the body). If the cans are completely clean the big guys (alcan...) can melt them down. If there is any contamination it has to go to a secondary smelter which adds to the process.

Is there a reason why steel fell from favour for drinks cans?

Back in the 80s we did rudimentary recycling streaming in school with a magnet to separate steel and alu cans, but now they all seem to be alu.

Isn't aluminium supposed to be toxic? Probably the amount absorbed from drinking from aluminium bottles wouldn't be enough to cause concern, but I'm not sure I would risk drinking from them all the time.

Aluminum is one of the most abundant minerals on earth. It's probably in just about everything. You almost certainly get more from your anti-perspirant that you do from an aluminum can.

Is PTFE or PET any safer?

Perrier does come in cans.

Water is not packaged in aluminum cans because of consumer views. Plastic is clear, so you can see the "clear, pure water" inside. Metal cans are more often associated with beer and soda, and there's the distant association of metals with a metallic taste (something that doesn't happen as all aluminum cans are epoxy-lined to prevent corrosion). Some sparkling water is still packaged in aluminum cans, but the vast majority choose not to.

Paper is probably the most ecologically friendly water packaging, followed by glass.

We use a Soda Stream and now quite easily just use tap water and carbonate it. I highly recommend it. The downside is that not many local places do the canister exchange where I live so we try to stock up.

I never bought bottled water before in the first place, but I do find it practical to keep a pack of them in the car in case I need them. They'd also be useful in emergencies. If I kept home-filled bottles around in there that long they would get gunky.

>If I kept home-filled bottles around in there that long they would get gunky.

If the bottles are clean, and the water is clean, the water will not get "gunky". I have a few 20L water containers at home for emergencies. I sanitized the containers and filled them with chlorinated tap water. A few years after I filled them, while I was moving, the water was still fresh tasting and clear.

Soda Stream Jet is pretty heavily discounted on amazon right now

this is just a regulator, a nozzle and some plastic?

As far as I know, yeah. This one's probably marked up because it looks fancier, I have a cheaper version (Soda Stream Source) but happened to see this one on SlickDeals recently.

The main value they add is a convenient CO2 tank exchange program at places like Staples and Best Buy. I'm sure rigging your own system with a bigger tank would be cheaper in the long run, but I don't have space for it.

Yeah - I got a 10lb CO2 cylinder, a regulator, a few hoses and Ball Lock connectors, and this:

https://www.homebrewing.org/Carbonation-Cap-Stainless-Steel_...

add water to 2L bottle, pressurize to 20-60PSI, shake bottle for 20 seconds.

Most people would at least once go for 20-60 Bar instead of PSI...

It's about convenience and structure. There are many very similar alternatives to SodaStream, such as MySoda local to me.

i highly recommend you read Let There Be Water.

Israel's solutions for a water starved world are going to save this planet.

Your anti-semetic color commentary won't go far in the water world.

https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounders/bds-the-global-c...

Ah, so there's the source of all the downvotes: someone is unhappy with my choice to support BDS.

The irony that the people who combat criticism by saying "Vote with your wallet" are then upset that I am, in fact, voting with my wallet...

Antisemitism used to mean something more specific... Can't quite remember what that was.

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