Water filling stations at the airport: I hope this catches on!

 

Bottled water can be very convenient to buy and bring along when you're traveling with kids. It's a non-sugary drink, it comes in a practical container, it's pretty easy to make space for in your carry-on, and if you're in a country where you're not able to drink the tap water, it can be essential.

However, I do have an issue with buying bottled water when you're in a country where the tap water is OK to drink. It just seems wasteful to buy a bottle of water filled up who knows when, who knows where, when you might just as easily fill up a reusable water bottle of your own with perfectly healthy tap water.

Since the restrictions on bringing liquids were put into place, the water bottle situation has become even more ridiculous for airplane travelers. If you bring a bottle of water you have to empty it or throw it away before going through security. Then you most likely will need to buy yet another bottle once you're inside.

This has happened to me when I've traveled with my children, and it's just silly. I've seen big garbage bags at the security checkpoints filled and overflowing with drink containers. Usually, I try to fill up the kids' reusable juice boxes with water, but filling up in bathrooms isn't always convenient, both because of the germ-factor, and because the taps aren't always made so that it's easy to fill up a container.

So when I saw in the news this morning that San Francisco international airport has installed special water filling stations inside security, I cheered (inwardly anyway). This is an excellent idea and I hope it catches on in more airports. If it does, I will definitely start bringing my own, reusable water bottle on flights on a regular basis.