If you’re into the zero/low waste world at all, you’ve likely come across SodaStream. Their at home sparkling water makers, CO2 carbonation cylinders and other accessories allow people to create their own sparkling drinks at home, without plastic bottles.
While this sounds like a great concept, SodaStream are also Israel-based and on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) list for their role in exploiting and oppressing Palestinians. Read on to learn more and find alternatives.
Why boycott SodaStream?
The BDS movement was launched in 2005 by 170 Palestinian unions, refugee networks, women’s organisations, professional associations, popular resistance committees and other Palestinian civil society bodies, as a form of non-violent pressure on Israel.
In 2011, BDS called for a boycott of SodaStream for its main operations in the occupied West Bank. The SodaStream factory was in an illegal settlement called Ma’ale Adumim, built on the remains of seven Palestinian villages, with the SodaStream plant directly contributing to the economy and development of the settlement. SodaStream enjoyed tax reductions from the Israeli government, low real estate prices, and lax labour laws, while its presence in the West Bank also entrenched Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territories through the “economic strengthening of the settlement.” This particular land theft is considered the largest single expropriation in the history of the Israeli occupation.
SodaStream also exploited and mistreated Palestinians directly. They hired Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, benefitting from cheap labour and worker mistreatment. Palestinians working at the factory in the occupied West Bank reported inhospitable and inhumane working conditions, including 12-hour shifts, Israel’s discriminatory permit system, and the fear of being fired on the spot.
In an interview in May 2013, a Palestinian worker at SodaStream said: “I feel humiliated and I am also disgraced as a Palestinian … We Palestinian workers in this factory always feel like we are enslaved.”
The impact of the BDS campaign on SodaStream
After years of grassroots BDS campaigning, SodaStream shut down its factory in the occupied West Bank in 2014. SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum acknowledged the impact of BDS on SodaStream products in their 2014 annual report.
However, the boycott continues.
In 2015, SodaStream relocated its main factory to the Idan Industrial Zone in the Naqab (Negev) desert. This factory is located beside Rahat, a planned township where Palestinian Bedouins have been forcibly evicted against their will. This itself is part of a long-time Israeli policy since the 1950s to forcibly expel and dispossess Palestinian Bedouins from their land, traditional lifestyles, and ancestral practices.
The BDS campaign against SodaStream will continue, as the company is moving to a location where it is directly colluding in the ethnic cleansing of Bedouin Palestinian citizens of Israel in the Naqab. SodaStream’s move is part of the Israeli government’s plans to steal the traditional lands of Bedouin Palestinian communities in the Naqab, forcibly displacing them and concentrating them in ‘urban’ areas.
– Omar Barghouti, Palestinian activist and co-founder of the BDS Movement
Unsurpsingly, worker mistreatment continued. In September 2014, Palestinian Bedouin women were “required to work 12-hour shifts in similar conditions to the plant in Mishor Adumim.” Plus, Palestinians from occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank reported travelling up to four hours to reach the new factory in the Naqab due to Israel’s racist and arbitrary system of checkpoints that impedes the movement of Palestinians, entrenching Israel’s apartheid system.
The boycott continues
BDS have made it clear that the boycott of SodaStream will end once it is no longer complicit in violations of Palestinian human rights. Despite the closure of its factory in the occupied West Bank, SodaStream upholds Israel’s policy of dispossession, forced displacement and ethnic cleansing through both its relocation and the way it maintains Israel’s oppression and apartheid policies through its mistreatment and discrimination against Palestinian workers.
SodaStream alternatives
Drinkmate
Sells sparkling water makers that can also carbonate other drinks, their CO2 cylinders are compatible with all Drinkmate, Aarke, SodaStream, and other brands that accept standard 60L cylinders.
Drinkmate are the second largest supplier of carbonator machines worldwide, with US operations based in Michigan and a UK warehouse near Norwich. They invented Drinkmate in 2015, after becoming dissatisfied with other soda machines that can only carbonate water, as they wanted to be able to sparkle any kind of cold beverage.
Aarke
Sell a range of sparkling water makers and CO2 cylinders that are compatible with most sparkling water makers (except SodaStream models that use the Quick Connect mechanism)
Based in Sweden, ships to Europe, USA and multiple other countries.
Bubliq
Sell drink carbonators and CO2 cylinders that are compatible with all soda makers (except SodaStream models that use the Quick Connect mechanism)
Denmark-based, ships to Europe and North America.
Soda Sense
Sells both sparkling water makers and CO2 canisters that are SodaStream compatible.
US-based brand, ships to USA. They exchange both Threaded (screw-in) and Easy Connect (snap-on) 60L CO2 canisters, which are compatible with all 60L CO2 carbonators from SodaStream but also Drinkmate, Ninja Thirsti, Aarke and more. Their Easy Connect pink-capped canister is specifically compatible with all new SodaStream Quick Connect machines.
Simpli Soda
Sells CO2 canisters that are SodaStream compatible.
US-based brand, ships to USA. For both screw in and quick-connect cylinders they also have compatibility checkers, as their options work with multiple brands including Sodastream and Ninja Thirsti.
My Soda
Sells sparkling water makers and CO2 cylinders that are compatible with all soda makers (except SodaStream models that use the Quick Connect mechanism)
Finland-based brand, ships to Europe.
Soda King
Sells soda water makers and CO2 cylinders that work with all leading soda machine manufacturers using screw-in systems
Australian brand, ships to Australia.
Spärkel
Sells sparkling beverage systems and carbonators made from granualated sodium bicarbonate and citric acid rather than CO2 cylinders.
USA-based, ships to USA. Only Spärkel Carbonators can be used with Spärkel Systems.
Twenty-39
Sells drink carbonators that can be used with other CO2 cylinders.
From USA, ships to USA.
Nordic soda
Sells CO2 cylinders that are compatible with all sparkling water machines in tabletop mode.
From Denmark, ships to Denmark.
Ninja Thirsti
Sell drink carbonators and CO2 cylinders
USA-based, ships to North America. They say Ninja Thirsti Drink System is only compatible with Thirsti CO2.
