Bubbly Water WarsJul 8, 2012 at 03:25:17 PM
I love soda.
Not the sweet, syrupy, caffeinated kind. But plain old bubbly water – known to many as “seltzer.”
My family jokes that I "drink like a camel" – a least a gallon (4 liters) per day. But it's hard getting all that water down, and I find that CO2 gives a quenching "bite" to the H2O.
Drinking all that soda, however, might have one major drawback: producing endless piles of empty bottles.
So in our house we have a nifty contraption that uses gas cartridges to inject CO2 into a reusable bottle and – presto! – instant homemade soda water.
SodaStream, the maker of these machines – an Israeli company, natch – is promoting its message of eco-consciousness in the form of a large metal cage. Packed with 10,657 empty bottles and cans, it represents the average consumption of one family over five years. Next to the cage is a sign that reads: "One bottle can replace this."
SodaStream displayed the cage prominently in New York's Time Square and 30 other countries.
So what did SodaStream get from all this? For starters, a stock (SODA) that is up 30 percent this year.
But when SodaStream displayed the cage in Olympic Park, opposite Coca-Cola's headquarters in Atlanta, they got slapped with a legal claim that these empty bottles and cans infringes on Coca-Cola's rights to its brand.
In response, SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum shot back: "You sold the product, and the sale terminates these rights. Besides, we collected the bottles from the garbage. If the cans in the garbage are yours, go and collect them from all over the world. That's a billion bottles a day being thrown out… We find it incredulous (sic) that Coke is claiming ownership of its garbage."
For me, I'll stay out of this fight. I'm content having my soda machine, and chugging 4 liters a day.