Bubble Man Takes On Coke

Forbes issue  August 6, details a story about the Bubble Man, Daniel Birnbaum.  He is taking on Coke and Pepsi with a similar product you produce at home using his CO2 machines to carbonate the water, and his (more healthy?) flavorings to add the taste.

What is the point?  For starters he is a little cheaper.  Perhaps a little more healthy.  But a big advantage is the reduction of wasteful plastic bottles and cans that currently transport the real Coke and Pepsi product.  How wasteful are these bottles?  I was surprised to learn that:

1.      The average family , over 5 years, consumes 10,657 bottles and cans  … multiply that by all the families in America, and you really do have an unsustainable by-product waste factor.  Are there enough landfills for all that?

2.      Fifty years ago, Americans were not drinking out of a plastic bottle (or can) and in 50 years they won’t be doing it either (so he says).  Good point.  Something has to give, will it be his product conquering the problem, or something else?

3.      Americans toss 130 billion bottles and cans a year.   A number that is just staggering.

He has taken his company public at $20 a share; it hit $78, is now back to $40.  In some countries he has the bulk of the non-bottled market already, but not in the USA. 

Coke and Pepsi respond that they are recycling a greater percentage of cans and bottles now than in the past.  How many?  Coke estimates that 36% of its cans and bottles are recycled.

Stock name:  SodaStream    fine retailers everywhere stock the product, but I have never heard of it.