Top up Taps

About the city. Edinburgh has been selected as the first location with the capital’s new Top up Tap to be located outside the Scottish Parliament.

Goal

The aim of the project is to use the new Top up Taps as a catalyst to encourage more people to choose to carry a refillable bottle

Implementation period. The Your Water Your Life project was launched in June 2018.

Fact

Consumer research conducted for Scottish water shows that tap water is preferred by about two-thirds of people in Scotland (65%), and currently, more than a third (36%) carry reusable bottles at all times or frequently when they are out of the house.

Solutions

The Top up Taps are part of Scottish Water’s Your Water Your Life campaign, which aims to encourage people to top up from the tap to benefit the planet, their health and save money.

The Top up Taps are made of marine-grade steel and are safely connected to the mains water supply with full consideration of health and legal requirements, as well as regular inspections.

Each unit is equipped with technology that allows to digitally track water consumption in each location, transmitting data via cloud technology to specialists managing Scotland’s water networks.

Data loggers inside provide information that can be translated into cost and plastic savings, as well as the amount of water used.

The first of the taps was installed in Edinburgh outside the Scottish Parliament in 2018. Since then, taps have been turned on from the Shetland to the Scottish Borders. The most popular tap currently installed is on Buchanan Street in Glasgow, with taps serving both ends of the West Highland Way, at Milngavie and Fort William, also proving to be very popular.

Team

Scottish Water, Edinburgh City Council, local authorities

Timeline

• A Scottish network of public Top up Taps has saved the equivalent of 250,000 plastic bottles through people refilling their reusable bottles while on the move (by October 2020)
• So far, with 26 taps up and running, more than 82,000 litres of water have been poured at the touch of a button into reusable bottles. (By October 2020)

If you notice an error or inaccuracy in our editorials, please email [email protected] so we can look into it.