If you’ve been lugging home too many bottles of soda and club soda to beat the summer heat, it may be time to consider a SodaStream soda maker.

You’ll not only save a lot of effort, but it’s an effortless way to go green.

Americans used more than 90 billion cans and bottles of soda and sparkling water last year. That’s a lot of recycling (and landfill).

You can save the environment, save gas, save money and save your back and arms with PURE from SodaStream (also known as Soda Club).

SodaStream, which has several models (PURE is the latest and sleekest), turns tap water into sparkling water or soda in 30 seconds.

No electricity or batteries are used; there’s no mess or clean-up; it’s easy to fit into in your kitchen, workplace, boat, etc. Reusable BPA-free carbonating cartridges do the carbonating.

Soda lovers can choose from 25 delicious regular and diet soda flavors and an energy drink—without high-fructose corn syrup or aspartame. The flavors, which are among the best sodas we’ve ever tasted, are certified kosher by OU.

Just about everyone who has passed through THE NIBBLE has purchased one and can’t do without it!

A key difference: Hot tea doesn’t create landfill; bottled iced tea does.

So as much as we love certain bottled teas and still enjoy them, we’ve been focusing on brewing our own.

First, the Breville One-Touch Tea Maker, our new favorite appliance, makes it a snap. This machine is so much fun—and produces such good results—we can’t say enough about it.

Second, we can brew a different type of tea each time (which in our case is two brewings a day): Earl Grey, jasmine tea (perhaps our favorite iced tea), green tea and whatever comes our way. Peach iced tea and blackberry iced tea were two recent brewings.

Home-brewing top-quality tea results in such a delicious drink that no sugar is needed. While lemon or lime adds calorie-free antioxidants, they’re not needed for flavor.

Spare the landfill: brew your own!
Photo by Spanish Alex | Dreamstime.

• See our ideas for holding an iced tea party, including recipes.
• Take the Iced Tea Trivia Quiz.

These fun decals meant for the nursery
are over our kitchen table. Photo
courtesy WeeGallery.com.

The self-adhesive, removable decals, made of eco-friendly polypropylene, can be repositioned with no damage to walls: Just peel and stick to create a fun wallscape.

While chacun à son goût, we actually prefer the happy birds with their “bon appetit” greeting to fruits, vegetables, cows, coffee pots, plump chefs and other kitchen decals we saw on various websites.

For those not into birdies, Wee Gallery offers sea turtles, flowers and other motifs.

And happy as we are with our choice, we’d love it if Wee Gallery would apply its artistic flair to create a few kitchen-specific editions.

In the interim, if you want to spruce up the kitchen—or need a baby gift—we highly recommend the Birdie Banner.