The summer festivals are approaching. It is often hot there, we look for fresh water, but how to limit waste and satisfy everyone? A company may have found the right idea…
Every year, hundreds of thousands of plastic water bottles are lost at festivals, but also during sporting events. Road runners, for example, don’t want to waste time filling a cup, and prefer to grab a bottle on the fly. The problem is that the bottle is thrown away, half drunk. So we lose water, and there is plastic to recycle.
Huge “Cups” and tap ramps now offer an alternative. The Rapid’Eau concept was developed by Eurocom. Its boss, Jean-Luc Schneider, explains the principle: “We offer a Cup, which is a giant cup with straws, very playful, which becomes a friendly gathering point. And for events with very large audiences, we install ramps connected to a booster, which makes it possible to fill 25 cl cups in less than a second.”
No more expensive than the plastic solution
The Cup and the water ramps were tested last year, in running races, tennis tournaments and festivals. The process will be developed on a large scale, and perhaps you will come across it on the road to summer.
Its visibility also allows sponsors to bear the cost of such an installation. Philippe Tauvel is the commitment manager for the MAIF brand, which supports both sporting and cultural events: “It’s no more expensive than the plastic solution, and it satisfies the participants. We saw too many queues lying near the taps, during festivals, in the heat wave, last year.”
Rapid’Eau saves water, avoids the massive use of plastic bottles and also offers drinks at a cool temperature, which is not negligible.