Introducing Drinkware OS

Software to transform any water bottle into a smarter water bottle

In January of 2020, Tap was well on its mission to connect drinking fountains across the world to the Internet with a simple QR code. The Tap Fountain OS created the basis for a “Wikipedia for Water” -- detailing the 266,910 refill points worldwide that are currently on Tap. In February, we were in talks with both the city of Seattle and Philadelphia to implement this system across their public fountains. By early March, everything was just about ready for implementation. By the second week of March, however, COVID-19 lockdowns put our plans to connect the drinking infrastructure of these cities on an indefinite hold.

The impact of the pandemic was a time for retooling at Tap. Due to the airborne spread of COVID-19 and the shared nature of public drinking fountains, Tap is encouraging everyone to continue to refuse single-use plastic and refill at touchless bottle refill stations, which have been shown to be safe during this time. Furthermore, as our team adjusted to life at home, one statistic stood out in particular --  60% of bottled water is consumed at home. While COVID affected encouraging folks to refill on the go, there was certainly room to encourage people to be more aware of their plastic impact at home. It was time to shift our focus from refilling on-the-go to refilling at home.

Introducing Drinkware OS — a unique QR sticker that goes on the outside of any water bottle and allows refillers to focus on hydration, measure personal plastic savings, and locate nearby water refill stations when away from home.

Hydration is a major indicator of health, yet some studies show that upwards of 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. The benefits of drinking water range from better physical performance to greater energy levels and improved mental functions. Tracking hydration is useful at any age, and optimal hydration is a great health goal for anyone looking to make improvements to their lifestyle in 2021. With Tap’s Drinkware OS, hydration tracking is as simple as opening your camera and scanning the QR code sticker placed on your water bottle.

Drinkware OS also allows refillers to understand the impact they have in reducing plastic across all of their drinkware devices. In a time when most people own a reusable water bottle, tumbler, or travel cup, 1 million single-use plastic water bottles are still sold every minute. By connecting the reusable cup at your kitchen table, the tumbler in your car, and the water bottle you use at the gym to one account, understanding of the number of plastic bottles you are saving by choosing to refill is seamless. With Drinkware OS, refillers are positively reinforced for staying connected to the mission of eliminating single-use plastic and can measure the impact of their personal plastic reduction.

The third feature of Drinkware OS is the ability to scan your reusable bottle and launch Tap’s water compass to find nearby water refill stations. Inspired by the billion women and children who walk on average 30 minutes for clean drinking water each day, Tap’s water compass uses the location and orientation features on your phone to point you in the direction of clean drinking water. Refillers can sort their search by the desired refill type, including bottle refill, drinking fountain, jug refill, and pet. 

Additionally, once refillers find the location on the water compass, they can launch the unique webpage for that drinking fountain where they can leave reviews, support the station, and get walking directions to that location. Collectively, these webpages catalogue where to refill, the type of refill, when the station was last reviewed, as well as features about the fountain including whether the water is filtered and how many single-use plastic bottles have been saved at that location.

With the launch of Drinkware OS, Tap is connecting drinkware devices to the Internet, while further connecting refillers to a zero waste refill network. 

1,000 days ago Captain Planet set off on a personal journey to never drink from a single-use plastic bottle ever again. And since that day, February 21, 2018, he has diligently carried his reusable bottle from the Austrian mountains to the Black Rock desert, drank from aluminum cans when the tap water was not potable in Mexico, and refilled 5 gallon jugs to travel long distances across the United States — actions that have all contributed to his ongoing commitment.

In celebration of Captain Planet’s 1,000th day, Tap is gifting 1,000 activation stickers for those who wish to join the mission to eliminate the single-use plastic water bottle.

Claim your Drinkware OS sticker here with the code "DrinkTap." (Code “DrinkTap” auto applies at checkout).

Remember, The Power is Yours and We Can Do It!