An Effort in Green

It's discoveries like this that make writing this blog fun. I was at Chapters, browsing through their ever-changing collection of amusing knick-knacks, when I found this little gem. It is a clock, and it runs on water and lemon juice. In other words, it's a kid's science project, but fancier looking. Yet it's somehow so exciting! I needed a clock for my room, and while I would have preferred one with an alarm in it, I couldn't resist a clock that doesn't take up one of my much-in-demand plugs, and also doesn't need batteries.

Wikipedia can tell you more about lemon batteries, if you're interested.

For this clock to work, you just fill it up mostly with water, plus a couple splashes of lemon juice (it says "fresh," but I used some from a bottle and it works fine), set the time, and you're good to go.

It won't be saving the world any time soon, but if you live in an area where your electricity comes from, say, coal, every little bit you can save helps.

A couple weeks ago, I went to the Winnipeg Convention Centre for an eco show. Basically I paid $10 to be advertised to, but the products were all really interesting, environmentally friendly things, so I didn't mind. I bought a bamboo cutlery set from Green Please! (a Winnipeg-based company!) to carry in my backpack, as well as the SodaStream.

The SodaStream is a machine used for making soda at home. It doesn't use any electricity, just a pressurised CO2 canister. The only waste products are the empty syrup bottles. The syrup bottles are pretty small, though (only enough for 9L of pop), so I'm hoping that eventually they'll make bigger bottles.

The one thing that bugs me is that you have to spend more to get more environmentally friendly models. The Eco Soda model, which is made of recycled materials (as is the packaging) is $20 more than the Genesis (the cheapest model, and the one I purchased). And you have to go way up in price to the Titan or the coveted, $299, Penguin model if you want to make your soda in glass bottles instead of plastic. This was already a big purchase for me, so I got the Genesis, with the excessive packaging that recently showed up in my plastic tally, rather than spend the extra money. At least the plastic bottles used for carbonating the water are BPA free, so that's something.

On the flip side of my complaining about the packaging, I think the fun of making your own pop is enough to make the SodaStream worth it. So here are the pictures of Jonathon and I making cola, without detailed instructions, simply because it's very easy.

The SodaStream, a bottle of cold water, and a sample-sized packet of cola syrup.

The bottle is screwed into the machine, and Jonathon pushes the button to carbonate the water.

After the water is carbonated, we pour the syrup in (carefully, because this makes it fizz a lot!).

That's Jonathon! After mixing in the syrup, the cola is complete. And it was all done in under a minute.