Finding Water in the Airport

When I fly I like to stay well-hydrated, but I’d rather not add to landfills by buying bottled water at the airport.  So in preparation for my next trip, I investigated the question: “Can you travel with an empty bottle, such as sports top bottle, and refill it at water fountains past the TSA checkpoints? ”

The short answer is yes.  

In fact, many airports around the country are actively encouraging travelers to bring their own empty water bottles along, in part because it’s time-consuming and expensive to cart away all those full or half-full bottles, cans and cups that passengers discard at the security checkpoints.  A growing number of airports around the country are installing beverage collection stations at the checkpoints to try to cut down on what gets carted off to landfills. “Travelers can pour beverages into the drains and keep the bottles,” said Steve Johnson of Oregon’s Portland International Airport.

For travelers like me, who want to make sure they can find a place to fill a water bottle post-security, airports such as San Francisco International Airport and Chicago’s Midway and O’Hare airports are  installing special water bottle refill stations.   The hands-free, sensor-activated stations at O’Hare also have counters that have been tallying the number of 16-ounce bottles diverted from landfills.  According to Gregg Cunningham of the Chicago Department of Aviation, since their installation in June and July 2010, the two stations at O'Hare have saved 220,717 bottles.

So next time you travel, feel free to bring your own water bottle.  Do your part to help reduce the number of plastic bottles being put into landfills.