QUESTIONS
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If its not soda, what is it?
We’re still a soda like beverage but just not as you know it. You will still find fizzy, sweet, delicious liquid in cans of NOT Soda but you won't find sugar or artificial sweeteners. More than that we’re not contributing to the environmental plastic disaster like a lot of other sodas in the market. We’re busy doin’ good – trying our best to drink our way out of this mess with you!
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How is Lo Bros Not Soda sugar free and your kombucha is not?
We’ve developed Not Soda to be similar to a traditional soda. It’s naturally sweetened with bold, full, refreshing flavour. Whereas our kombucha needs a tiny amount of sugar, just enough to keep our probiotics alive. We don’t want those beneficial babies to die!
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What is the brew base you talk of?
Brew base is the fermented goodness that you we have mastered with our Lo Bros Kombucha. It’s helped us craft these delicious sodas and brings a complex flavour profile – we think this adds a magic touch for the tastebuds.
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What does the “bad stuff” mean on the side of your can?
When we say ‘bad stuff’ we refer the reasons why a conventional soda product isn’t great, they’re typically: full of sugar, artificial flavours and sweeteners and come housed in little environmental disasters aka plastic bottles.
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Are you still vegan?
Yes! We are 100% vegan.
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Do you use natural colours?
Yes all of our colours are from natural food sources, like carrots and beetroot!
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Why do you use Erythritol and Stevia?
We use tiny amounts of these naturally derived sweeteners to make Lo Bros Not Soda delicious without sugar and all the harmful effects it has on our bodies. Stevia is a plant that’s WAY sweeter than regular sugar, so we can use much less of it to give you the same satisfying sweet hit. Erythritol sounds a bit scary, but it’s just a sweetener that’s made via the process of fermenting natural starches in fruits and vegetables – kinda like fermenting beer. By combining these two we can give you all the fizzy drink feels without the sugar content.
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When you say “this can removes 2 x plastic bottles* from our oceans,” what does that mean?
For every can of Not Soda we sell, we will remove the equivalent weight of 2 of these bottles worth of plastic from marine environments. So, it could be plastic bottles, it could be straws or discarded fishing line. At the end of the day, we need all types of plastic out of our oceans so we’re not discriminating!
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What does “equivalent weight in plastic” mean?
Working with our partners, Seven Clean Seas, the weight of a plastic bottle (a 375ml plastic soft drink bottle and cap to be exact!) is defined as 17 grams. That means we remove 34 grams of plastic for every can of Not Soda we sell. Just in case you thought we might be pulling a swift-one and removing the weight of flimsy water bottles, we’re not.
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How do you remove plastic from the ocean? And from where?
We have partnered with the incredible team at Seven Clean Seas, an ocean clean-up organisation based in Bali, to remove marine plastic from coastlines, mangroves, rivers and nearshore areas in Bintan, Indonesia.
They have committed to recovering over 10 million kilos of marine debris by 2025 from the top 7 worst plastic polluted countries in the world!
Seven Clean Seas formally employs waste pickers in Indonesia, so they can provide full transparency on where the plastic waste is collected, deposited and who collected it! This ensures there is no green-washing or exploitation of cheap labour. Seven Clean Seas helps clean the environment and support the local community at the same time. It’s a win-win sea-tuation.
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What happens to the plastic you remove from the ocean?
Once the plastic is collected from beaches and waterways, the Seven Clean Seas team takes it back to their MRF (Material Recycling Facility) to sort and separate – this is when the horror of just how many PET bottles there are becomes clear. Literally tonnes from this one area alone.
Tragically much of the plastic bottles that are collected is highly contaminated with organic matter, tar or even degraded by UV radiation. Therefore, a lot of the plastics collected cannot be recycled.
Only a small percentage (~5%) of the total plastic collected is recyclable and are almost solely PET bottles and are donated to the local informal sector. The remainder has to be treated in a government-owned and managed landfill to permanently ensure it remains out of the environment.
This end-of-life solution has been successfully third party audited by Control Union against the Zero Plastic Oceans certification, to ensure it remains permanently out of the environment.
Additionally, Seven Clean Seas are investing in material research and development to find upcycling solutions for the non-recyclable material so that one day, they can achieve zero waste to landfill!
It’s not perfect but it’s better than polluting our oceans.
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What is PET and what’s the big issue with plastic bottles?
PET stands for Polyethylene Terephthalate and is a widely used type of plastic most commonly used in soft drink bottles. They are cheap and are of little value once emptied of their fizzy contents - did you know PET bottles can only be recycled times!
Half a trillion plastic bottles are produced and sold every year, and up to 34 billion of these end up in our oceans and waterways. Like us you might have thought putting plastic bottles in the right bin meant they’d be…recycled. Sometimes they are, often they’re not.
This is NOT okay. That’s why NOT Soda is cleaning up plastic and why we’ll only ever be sold in higher value, infinitely recyclable aluminium, we know it’s not perfect but it’s better. -
Does Lo Bros use plastic?
Yes, we use plastic. It is mostly an unavoidable cost of doing business. However! We’ve called in Plastic Collective and have conducted a deep dive into Lo Bros plastic footprint.
The Plastic Collective are a leading global player creating circular economies for plastic. The audit measured all plastic used throughout the Lo Bros brand and together we are working together to phase out all avoidable plastic. Plus, we’re offsetting all remaining plastic use through credit programs, becoming a net zero plastic brand.
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What is the Container Deposit Scheme and where can I get my 10c refund for recycling the can?
Cash for cans! Lo Bros contributes to Container Deposit Schemes around Australia to support the effective recycling of our aluminium cans. We currently partner with VIC, NSW, QLD, NT, SA and ACT. In WA and New Zealand the scheme isn’t available….yet!
If you can’t get to a CDS, you can recycle your cans from home with your curb side recycling pickups.We currently partner with VIC, NSW, QLD, NT, SA and ACT. In WA and New Zealand the scheme isn’t available….yet!