New Program Helps Students And Hikers Ditch Bottled Water

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Every year, 200 billion bottles of water are consumed globally. Unfortunately, only about 12 percent of these will be recycled, leaving 176 billion plastic bottles to be dumped in landfills or left to float in the ocean. College campuses and National Parks are some of the worst offenders in this plastic deluge, since both entertain thousands of visitors a day and lack access to filtered water.

Thanks to a new partnership between Vapur, makers of reuseable, recyclable Anti-Bottles, and Elkay, manufacturers of innovative sinks and faucets, both students and outdoor enthusiasts will now find it much easier to stay hydrated without creating mounds of toxic waste.

Vapur-Refill-Wall_Unit

Image via Elkay/Vapur

The companies have collaborated to create the Vapur Refill Station Program: an initiative that will help place filtered water dispensers on college campuses and at National Parks across the country. The co-branded refilling stations will be placed in designated areas throughout a participating park or campus. The graphics on the Vapur Refill Stations are purposefully designed to attract attention and will convey the important message of “Be Safe & Hydrated” for parks and “Be Healthy & Hydrated” for campuses. Each refill station will include a “Bottles Saved” counter, tallying the number of plastic bottles saved through the program, as well as QR code encouraging interaction and educating visitors about the Vapur Refill Station Program.

vapur-water-bottles

Image via Vapur

Although they’re designed to be used with Vapur’s amazing line of foldable, reusable water bottles, the filling stations are compatible with all types of reuseable containers. Since dehydration, especially in the recent scorching heat, is a real danger for inexperienced hikers, it’s hoped that installing the filling stations at National Parks will reduce incidents of heat-related emergencies. Likewise it’s hoped that students, who need to keep energy and concentration levels up, will be drawn to the convenient, filtered water stations and choose H20 over sodas or sugary energy drinks, all while reducing landfill waste.

The first pilot of the Vapur Refill Station Program is scheduled to launch in Montana in the next few weeks, and will soon be followed by other state and national parks and college/university campuses.

Posted on July 12th, 2012 · Comment ↓

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Posted in Green Gadgets & Design, Green Living

  • Unblinkered

    PET (the plastic in which water and fizzy cold drinks and iced teas and energy drinks are bottled and in which many food stuffs are packaged) – is 100% recyclable. And so, too, you write are these Vapur bottles. However, what guarantee is there that students and hikers will recycle these? Until the media and legislators realise that the problem is not PET but lazy humans and their wasteful behaviour … and put programmes in place to train these lazy humans to change their wasteful behaviour, landfills will continue to burgeon as they are stuffed with the waste that life in the 21st century generates.

    • Pete

      The Vapur bottles are reusable. They cost $10 for a half-liter bottle. My guess is for most of us 98-percenters, that price would be substantial encouragement not to throw them away.

  • Tyroanee

    NO PLASTIC!~~~

  • Tali

    how do you exactly refill a water bottle at the station?  it seems like even if less plastic bottles are wasted, more drinkable water might be wasted?

  • Militaryrep

    It pours down into your bottle, so LESS water is wasted trying to fill a bottle laying on its side..

  • guest

    can’t ppl just simply use previously used water bottle to refill? Why an additional type of containers with so much more plastics/ chemicals/ productions?
    Or, what if all plastics bottles will have a refund fee of USD1 and encourage ppl to recycle them?