Tallinn calling on companies to offer tap water to clients
The City of Tallinn, Estonian Hotel and Restaurant Association and Tallinna Vesi Ltd. have launched a campaign inviting eco-friendly catering facilities to offer their customers tap water instead of bottled water.
"By offering tap water instead of bottled water, you can be more customer-friendly and express your concern for human health and the environment," said Aivar Riisalu, deputy mayor of Tallinn, highlighting that the move reduces waste.
"By offering one cubic meter of tap water, it is possible to prevent the production, transport and handling of 2,000 plastic or glass bottles, because this is how many bottles it takes to package one cubic meter of water. Whilst the price of half a litre of tap water is less than one cent, the price of the cheapest drinking water in a bottle will exceed it at least 50 times. Everyone benefits from preferring tap water to bottled water."
The council said in a statement that tap water is 10 to 90 times more resource-efficient than bottled water, depending on how far the water Is transported and that bringing bottled water from longer distances consumes significantly more natural resources.
The popularity of drinking tap water has grown year by year among Tallinners and Aleksandr Timofejev, CEO of Tallinna Vesi, believes that this has been facilitated by both continuous information work and the growing environmental awareness of consumers.
"The quality of tap water in Tallinn has been very good for many years, and with its good availability, there is no reason why bottled water should be preferred to tap water," said Timofejev.
Catering facilities that offer tap water can display a label which can be obtained from the information center of the City Government (Vabaduse väljak 7), the Tallinn Tourist Information Centre (Niguliste 2) or the Tallinn Strategic Management Centre (Kaarli 4).
On the website www.vesikraanist.ee it is possible to see the catering facilities that have joined the initiative. It is also possible for customers to signal about the cafés and restaurants providing tap water and for companies to notify about joining the initiative.
Tallinn is competing to be the European Unions Green Capital in 2023.
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Editor: Helen Wright
