Water, Water Bottles, and Why I Struggled Finding Water Bottle Stickers in Peru

Hiking outside of Ollantaytambo, Peru.

When I left home for a study abroad trip to Peru, I expected at least two things: that I could buy cool stickers to put on my water bottle, and that I could fill up my water bottle wherever I went.

I was wrong on both accounts. 

It took me two and a half weeks of visiting every shop I could before I finally found stickers for sale in Aguas Calientes, the town at the foot of Machu Picchu.  I could have given up on my quest to buy a sticker in Peru, but I really like stickers. For me, collecting stickers is a fun way to personalize the items I own, and I think they look cool. A few of my friends disagree with me on the “stickers looking cool” part, but regardless I have stickers on my water bottles, laptop, wallet, and favorite lamp. Needless to say, I was relieved to finally buy a sticker in Aguas Calientes before leaving the next day. 

And it turns out, there was nowhere for me to fill up my water bottle. In a country where drinking water out of the tap is not safe, both locals and visitors in Peru buy bottled water or boil their water. Without clean tap water available, I couldn’t fill up my water bottle at home or in public like in the United States. While visiting Peru, I quickly got into the habit of buying water bottles everyday and filling up my reusable water bottle as needed. 

Having to change my water drinking habits made me rethink how I get water everyday. Do you ever stop to think about how you drink your water? Since coming home, I’ve thought more about the design, infrastructure, and standards of drinking water worldwide. Let’s dive in.

Clean Water and Water Bottle Fillers

I can use a water bottle because I have access to clean tap water, but I like using a water bottle because I have access to water bottle fillers. It was always possible to refill your water bottle at a drinking fountain before water bottle fillers. However, this involved getting your water bottle at the right angle and being careful not to spill any water. Water bottle fillers are small stations, generally installed with a drinking fountain, where someone can place their empty water bottle and get a quick refill. 

The Elkay EZH20 water bottle filler from the main floor of BYU’s engineering building. The featured water bottle was the 48,839th water bottle filled at this particular station. Notice the stickers on the water bottle and the green counter at the top.

Streamlining the water bottle filling process makes it easier for people to use and buy water bottles. More people owning reusable water bottles prompts businesses to buy and install water bottle fillers. This creates a positive feedback loop where the rise of water bottles and water bottle fillers go hand in hand. And of course, more people owning water bottles also provides a market for people to sell water bottle stickers.

Good Design: The Elkay EZH2O Water Bottle Filler

Water bottle fillers are also an example of a well designed product. My favorite water bottle filler is the Elkay EZH2O water bottle filler. I say it’s my favorite because I see it everywhere and use it the most. EZH2O water bottle fillers were installed at my high school, they’re on several buildings across the BYU campus, and I often see them in public. Aside from their popularity, Elkay’s water bottle filler does a great job because:

1. They can be installed anywhere there is infrastructure in place for a drinking fountain, making them easy to implement.

2. They have a positive environmental impact. Between 2010 and 2021, Elkay Water Bottle Fillers saved 40 billion water bottles! [1] Cutting down on single-use plastics reduces waste and saves resources used in making new water bottles (e.g. raw materials, electricity, and water used in production).

3. They are quick and efficient. Flow rates for Elkay’s water bottle fillers are between 1.1 and 1.5 gallons per minute, and it only takes 6 to 8 seconds to fill a 20oz water bottle. Plus, the water stream is almost totally laminar, so there is no splashing or mess.

4. People feel good using it. At the top of every EZH2O water bottle filler is a green counter that keeps track of how many water bottles it’s saved. This small feature isn’t needed to make the water bottle filler work, but it revolutionizes how a user feels using the product.

Getting Clean Water to Where it’s Needed

Even though I didn’t have access to clean tap water for drinking in Peru, I could get as much water as I wanted by buying bottled water. Interestingly enough, I felt like it was easier to buy bottled water in Peru than the United States. I could always find reasonably priced bottled water from stores and street vendors almost everywhere I went. Contrast that with the US, where my most regular access to bottled water is overpriced and from a vending machine.

Now what I’m going to say breaks the “causation is not correlation” axiom from statistics, but it felt like the limited access to clean tap water correlated to fewer people owning reusable water bottles in Peru—which also meant virtually no water bottle stickers! In fact, I was asked on a few occasions what my water bottle even was. Granted, I own a 2 liter water jug that does not look like a conventional water bottle. But here’s a conversation I had with someone I’ll call Alex:

Alex: “Hey man, I was wondering, what’s that container you’ve been carrying around?”

Me: “Oh, it’s a water bottle.” Since It was my third time having this conversation, I decided to elaborate more. “In the United States, some buildings will have places where you can fill up water bottles, and people carry water bottles around and refill them instead of buying new water bottles.” 

Alex: “Really? That’s kind of weird.”

Me: “Yeah, pretty weird.”

My “water bottle.” No wonder Alex was confused! This half gallon jug from Igloo has served me well for a year and a half now.

I used to have a very negative perspective on plastic water bottles because they contribute to worldwide plastic consumption and pollution. Even though plastic pollution is a crisis that needs immediate solving, plastic water bottles have an important role to play in distributing sanitized water. It would make no sense to install a water bottle filler somewhere the tap water isn’t safe for drinking—but bottled water ensures the delivery of clean water to places that are not yet up to the World Health Organization’s standards for drinking water [2]. Bottled water provides clean water where clean water is scarce, and water bottle fillers cut down on plastics pollution wherever they can be used. Both are simple solutions for the problems they seek to solve, and it will take a lot more simple solutions to reach a sustainable future.

The Urubamba River flows past the city of Aguas Calientes, Peru, and around the mountain that Machu Picchu sits on. The only shops I found in Peru that sold stickers are on the other side of this sidewalk.

Conclusion

On my flight back to the United States, I almost laughed when I saw another Elkay EZH2O Water bottle filler in the Los Angeles airport. I never thought that sticker shopping would inspire me to think more about product design and drinking water standards! Keep your eyes open and pay attention to the world around you, and no matter where you are, you’ll always be learning. At least for now, my newest sticker will serve as a good reminder for everything I learned about water, water bottles, and the struggle to find water bottle stickers in Peru.

[1] “Elkay Celebrates One Millionth ezH2O® Bottle Filling Station Milestone,” Cision PR Newswire, 7/12/2021. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/elkay-celebrates-one-millionth-ezh2o-bottle-filling-station-milestone-301331193.html (accessed 6/14/22)

[2] I’d encourage you to learn more about global challenges related to drinking water by checking out the World Health Organization’s website,  https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/drinking-water (accessed 6/14/2022).