#DrinkTapPHL: 15,000 Reasons to Ditch Disposable Bottles

Philadelphia Water and Head of the Schuylkill Regatta teamed up to give away 15,000 reusable bottles Oct. 24-25. It's part of a new effort to encourage people to save money with tap water and fight litter with refillable bottles. Credit: Philadelphia Water/Brian Rademaekers

There were lots of big names and important figures on the banks of the Schuylkill on Oct. 23 to announce a new network of water bottle filling stations along the Schuylkill River Trail, "America's Best Urban Trail" and Philadelphia's most popular recreational path.

But perhaps the most important (and certainly the cutest) people there were the 4th grade students from FS Edmonds Elementary School. Fresh from a field trip to the Fairmount Water Works, the kids enthusiastically took the #DrinkTapPHL/Schuylkill Navy River Stewards pledge to “Choose to Reuse” and were given some of the 15,000 free refillable bottles ordered for the new drinking water/anti-litter campaign. (For photos from Friday's kickoff, click here.)

As a society, we've become a throwaway culture that thinks nothing of using, for just few minutes, a plastic bottle that will last centuries. Who knows? Maybe these kids will become part of a generation that realizes just how foolish and wasteful that sort of behavior is, and change course.

One thing is for sure: the kickoff event for the new effort to fight the bottled water litter clogging our rivers and parks was a success, with lots of people coming out to learn more about the problem and the solution. During this weekend's Head of the Schuylkill Regatta race, the demand for reusable bottles was pretty clear: we were able to give away all 15,000 of the BPA-free, high quality refillable bottles!

We hope that means 15,000 less single-use bottles that end up in the waste stream/our streams.

Here's a video of  the Schuylkill Navy River Stewards Committee's  Alan Robinson talking about what inspired his group to start fighting bottled water litter:

Other speakers and guests included: Mayor Michael Nutter, Councilman Curtis Jones, Jr’s Chief of Staff, Josh Cohen, Parks and Recreation's Deputy Mayor for Environmental and Community Resources Michael DiBerardinis, Philadelphia Water Commissioner Howard Neukrug, Captain of the Water Initiative for the HOSR Deirdre Mullen, Commodore of the Schuylkill Navy Paul Horvat, President/Co-director of Head of the Schuylkill Regatta Ellen Carver.

A big thank you to everyone who is committed to making our rivers, parks and planet a healthier place by choosing to reuse!

More:

Check out Philly.com's story on the campaign here, and read coverage of the kickoff event from CBS Philly here.

Click Here for Fact Sheet on Bottled Water Litter in Philly