Drink Tap Water

I walked passed Lush in Lincoln the other day and spotted a blue sticker in the window that said “tapwater.org”. 

Naturally I had to look it up:

tapwater.org is a not for profit organisation promoting the drinking of tap water in the UK. Our aim is to reduce the use of expensive and environmentally damaging bottled waters, by making it easy and convenient for you to access free tap water wherever you are. We are working towards a refilling station every 400 metres in urban areas.

It’s easy to get tap water when you’re at home, just turn on the tap, but what about when you are out and about? That’s where our map comes in. We are mapping points all around the UK making it convenient for you to fill up your reusable bottle with tap water, for free. Take a look at the map here or by using our iPhone app. You can also locate refilling stations by looking out for our blue ‘refill here’ sticker in participating shop windows.

This is a really great idea. I do buy bottled water when I’m out but I would be more than happy – and would prefer to – refill a bottle from a tap if there was one available. I have a couple of those plastic bottles you use on a bicycle, but while looking at the tapwater.org website I saw these rather groovy looking “lifebottles” and now I want one!

Our lifebottle is a high quality, stainless steel, re-useable bottle, which we have designed to be both stylish and durable. The unique and innovative cap contains a special compartment for the storage of our effervescent flavoured tablets (taptabs) so you can add flavour to your water for only 9p a go. The bottle is also vacuum constructed, keeping water cold for up to 20 hours.

 

They don’t do a green one (yet?) but the orange is a pretty great colour. The stainless steel is much more hygenic than plastic and you can get taptabs to flavour your drink which fit inside the bottle cap. They are available in 350ml (can of coke), 500ml (normal water bottle size), 700ml or 1litre sizes and start at £12. Profits go back into the organisation to promote the cause as well as putting tap water filling stations in education establishments. I could quite happily carry one of these around with me in my bag – definitely on the list of things to buy.

I downloaded the iOS app and see there is currently just the one tapwater.org refilling station in Lincoln – there is also one up at Burton Waters – but in other cities there are loads more so hopefully Lincoln will catch up soon. It will be particularly useful for anyone visiting London and other large cities across the world where drinks are so expensive – I wonder if there will be refilling stations inside the Olympic Park?!

I hope tapwater.org catches on (I know I’m probably already really late to the party), and we see a move towards free tap water across the UK.

You can find out more about tapwater.org on their website, where you can also purchase a lifebottle or find out how to set up a refilling station.

PS – Can you take your own mug/cup into Starbucks or Costa Coffee and ask them to put your chosen coffee in it rather than their paper cups?