Plastic free: Pop #3

The SodaSaga continues...

It started when EnviroWoman switched from Pepsi in a plastic bottle to Pepsi in a can when she took the no-new-plastic pledge on January 1st. Then Anonymous enlightened EnviroWoman by commenting that Pepsi cans have an inner lining of plastic. So it was back to square one.

Over the last couple of weeks EnviroWoman has been searching for Pepsi replacements.

She tried Henry Weinhard’s Black Cherry Cream, Real Brew Draft Rootbeer, Boylan Bottleworks Root Beer, Koala, Stewart's Root Beer, and Jones Soda.

It looks like a veritable garden of soda options doesn’t it? Soda pop heaven, right?

Alas, not so. None were NirvanaPopPerfect.

Although all were refreshing, in EnviroWoman’s opinion none could beat Pepsi in a TasteTestChallenge. Plus, all were double the price.

Stewart's had a plastic label (buying it was a total brain fart). On the plus side, Boylan’s Root beer didn’t even have a label, just ink right on the bottle, though it did come with a cardboard 4-pack carrier which added to its packaging.

EnviroWoman was really leaning towards Jones Soda, because of their cool marketing featuring customers’ photos on the labels. Plus their bottles had screw on metal lids, rather than caps, which meant EnviroWoman could re-use the bottles for her EarthQuake Preparedness H20 stash.

But it was while EnviroWoman was washing out and refilling one of the Jones Soda bottles, that she discovered to her horror….a little blue plastic liner nestled inside the cap. You know, like the ones that usually say ‘Sorry, Try Again’ but in Jones Soda’s case ironically says ‘Fortune smiles upon you at this time'. (Yeah, it's ironic, but it's still a nice surprise to see such a positive message under a bottle cap...gotta luv the Jone's Soda)

EnviroWoman checked the caps from the other bottles….Koala had the same blue liner…but no feel-good message. Boylan’s and Real Brew didn’t have liners…but did have something that looked suspiciously like plastic fused to its underside.

Crap, crap, crap and triple crap.

Of course, all this makes sense…the plastic liners help seal the liquid in.

EnviroWoman has to admit, although she could legitimately exclaim ‘Who knew!’ about the liner in the Pepsi can…she knew, knew, knew there was plastic under those lids. She’d been told plenty of times ‘Sorry, Try Again’. But that fact had just drifted out of her consciousness each time she made her soda purchase. Proof positive that sometimes EnviroWoman isn’t the brightest bulb in the chandelier.

Now…here’s the kicker…EnviroWoman bets the amount of plastic under the caps is equal in mass/volume/weight to the plastic used in the liner of a Pepsi can. It's the old 'half a dozen of one, six of the other' dilemma.

So here’s how things add up:

Category: Soda Pop (in this part of the SodaSaga, we mean Pepsi alternatives)
SAINT: None. They all use plastic to some extent
Price: Double
Quality: Not as good as Pepsi, but they’d do just fine if you were stranded in the Sahara
SINNER: Alas, all of ‘em

Lessons Learned:

• Fortune Smiles Upon You at This Time. Giving up pop isn’t the end of the world. EnviroWoman’s life, and yours, is still filled with an abundance of good things to be grateful for – like chocolate! 'Tis true....EnviroWoman can give up anything, if she can just keep on eating chocolate.
• Sorry, Try Again. Thomas Edison made 700 failed attempts at the light bulb. And then...magic! EnviroWoman just has to keep on trying to turn the SodaSaga into a SodaSuccess...or I could just go to a restaurant and ask for Pepsi in a glass!