As of July 4, 2023, Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport‘s largest retailer has stopped selling water in plastic bottles. Instead, travelers will have the option to purchase a reusable bottle from the store and fill it for free at water fountains. The water fountains can also be used with travelers’ own bottles.
According to the company, this decision to eliminate the sale of bottled water in their stores will prevent the disposal of 750,000 plastic bottles per year.
Furthermore, the company conducted a study that revealed that people continue to buy water bottles because water fountains are difficult to find. As a result, an additional water filling station has been installed at the airport, which also displays the amount of water passengers have filled in their bottles and the number of disposable plastic bottles that have been avoided.
Since 2019, EU countries are obligated to reduce the use of single-use packaging, even for plastics that are recyclable. In 2020, the EU set the course for a circular economy as part of the European Green Deal initiative. These measures are part of the overall European strategy to combat plastic waste. By 2030, over half of the plastic in the EU will be recycled, and all packaging plastics will either be easily recyclable or reusable.
