this post was submitted on 14 Feb 2025
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Switch to a caffeine-free version some of the time, then all of the time. For Pepsi Max this is only available in the 1.5L bottles where I am, so add in an extra step switching from cans to bottles (which should also reduce cost/waste).
Buy a nice reusable water bottle and ensure you have a clean, not-bad-tasting source of fresh water to fill it with (where I am this means bottled or filtered). Keep it filled and close to you at all times. Only use water in it.
Once you're comfortable with these adjustments, taper off the fizzy drink. If you're still having significant trouble or cravings, or substitute for something worse: just keep drinking the fizzies. It's one of the least harmful bad habits you could have, and depending on your circumstances might be a best case scenario
A few things. Firstly, regarding waste cans are actually recyclable unlike bottles. As for buying 1.5l bottle and then drinking only a glass or something like that a day, for some people (talking from my own experience) they don't drink the volume of the drink, just the unit. 1 bottle = 1 can for me, doesn't matter the volume ๐ So I usually advocate for reducing the size of units if a person lacks self control.
I think that's true for small containers, such as a can. Whereas 1.5L is an impractical amount to drink of anything, more likely to lead to drinking until satiation rather than until the container is finished. Especially where the starting point of the habit involves opening a fresh container with a certain aesthetic, and finishing it. That itself can be psychologically addicting. It was for me.
Neither aluminium nor plastic are infinitely recyclable. I read somewhere that factoring in the energy and materials required in the initial production of the container, plastic is about 13x more wasteful. So while of course it depends on serving size (which would logically be different transitioning from small cans to large bottles), as well as recycling programs in your area and their respective efficiencies, you're most likely correct that the carbon footprint of large bottle would be higher overall.
What I really meant to get at was 'waste' in terms of the amount of empty containers that tend to pile up around you. For myself being addicted to drinking cans of fizzy, I would stack them around me and it would become a much larger job to clean them up than it is for large bottles.
I'll also say that while being addicted to cans, I lamented their relatively higher cost and was more compelled to go for small bottle form factor on occasions where they were available cheaper than cans, rather than large bottles. Small bottles of course being by far the most wasteful.