From next year, you’ll be able to get free drinking water from a tapping point at 200 NS stations.

Reducing plastic rubbish at Dutch stations

NS wants to offer travellers free drinking water at its stations as of next year. This particular project is costing them about three million euros in investment and maintenance for the next 10 years, but they hope that providing tapping points will reduce plastic rubbish at stations and promote a healthy lifestyle.

In the Netherlands, there are more than 400 train stations; NS will be taking their first steps next year and providing 200 of these stations with water tapping points. Around 90 percent of passengers will pass a tapping point by the end of 2019.

The Chief Executive of NS, Roger van Boxtel, hopes that partners, such as municipalities and water companies, will help with the project so that the dream of having drinking water available at every station can be realised. Alkmaar will be the first station to receive a tapping point at the end of this month.

Environmentally friendly station

NS has noticed an increase in the demand for free tap water for those wanting to fill up their bottles and are happy to oblige. NS director of Sustainable Enterprise Carola Wijdoogen declared, “If we sell fewer bottles of water at the station, then so be it. We find facilitating a healthy and sustainable lifestyle more important.”

The State Secretary for Infrastructure and Water Management, Stientje van Veldhoven, is delighted with the NS’s plans, calling the tapping points “an excellent example of how large businesses can contribute to the reduction of plastic soup.”