Plastic water bottles– you see them almost everywhere, carried by almost everyone. Most of us always have some in the refrigerator, and some people are never without them. Can you imagine how many bottles we go through each year? According to Earth911.com, 2.456 million pounds of plastic water bottles were recycled in 2009, but that was only 28% of the total bottles that were used! The rest were just thrown away, adding to an already huge waste problem.
Part of the solution to this waste problem may be a new water fountain– and it’s not just to get a drink without using the bottle. Several manufacturers are now offering a water-bottle filling station built in to their water coolers. These hands-free filling stations dispense filtered water, and are both fast and sanitary. Some of them even come with a ‘bottle counter’ that will keep track of how many bottles are saved through re-filling. Bottle filling stations can be built-in to new water coolers, or retro-fitted to existing ones. Sensors on the units turn the water on and off so there is nothing to touch and no way to spread germs. These special stations fill a water bottle about three times faster than a standard water fountain, and do so with the bottle in a vertical position, not tilted on the side so it’s hard to get full. If you just need a drink and have no bottle, the standard drinking fountain is still a part of the unit.
The water bottle filling station/drinking fountain is one more innovation in an industry that is LEED inspired and a prime target for ‘going green’. Contact a member of our ConServ team to learn more about this revolutionary product and other ways to help save the environment.
ConServ Building Services, LLC provides excellent commercial HVAC, refrigeration, plumbing, and general construction services to businesses across the Southeastern United States. To learn more about ConServ, visit www.conservonline.com.