With 30 more taps to be installed across the country over the next two years (including Glasgow, Dumfries, Inverness and Aberdeen), the company will work with local authorities to ‘identify suitable locations’ and hopes the first 10 will be up and running by March 2019.
Chief executive Douglas Millican said: “The creation of a new network of public ‘Top up Taps’ across Scotland as part of our ‘Your Water, Your Life’ campaign, is a significant boost in encouraging more people to choose to drink tap water in their daily lives.
“Our research shows that people feel very positively towards the quality of Scotland’s tap water – now these taps can provide access to enable water drinkers to enjoy it while on the go by carrying and using refillable bottles.”
The “high-tech super-sturdy hygienic” fountains can already be found in venues such as ZSL London Zoo, Wimbledon Tennis Club and Heathrow Airport, and are all supplied by MIW Water Cooler Experts.
The Scotland roll-out forms part of Scottish Water’s ‘Your Water Your Life’ campaign, highlighting “the benefits that topping up with tap water can bring in terms of health and wellbeing, cost, waste reduction and impact on the environment.” It also hopes to help meet the Scottish Government’s commitment to piloting a network of public refill points, as set out in its 2018 Programme for Government.
Mike Winter, MIW Water Cooler Experts chief executive, commented: “With 16 million plastic bottles ending up in landfill or polluting waterways in the UK every day, and plastic bottles taking up to 450 years to break down, it’s essential that we ditch our reliance on single use plastic for refreshment.
“Scottish Water’s commitment to providing a network of refill stations is a fantastic step to reducing plastic waste. These latest models of outdoor refill stations are specially designed to be durable, fast and accessible to those with physical disabilities, making them ideal for high traffic public areas.”