Ditch the Plastic, Embrace the Tap

It’s a no-brainer: Drinking tap water is more sustainable than consuming bottled water. The production of bottled water requires raw materials, transportation, and additional water. Did you know that it takes 2-4 liters of water to produce a single liter of bottled water? Despite the deposit system in the Netherlands, only 58% of these bottles are recycled, with the remaining 42% either incinerated as waste or discarded, ending up in forests, streets, or oceans as plastic waste. Bottled water may not be the healthiest for your body either, as microplastics often end up in your bottled drink.

BYOB now allowed at festivals

BYOB just took on a whole new meaning: Bring Your Own Bottle! Because at various festivals across Europe, you now have the option to bring your reusable water bottle and refill it with local tap water. These festivals include ESNS (NL), Dekmantel Festival (NL), Lente Kabinet (NL), Northside (DK), We Love Green (FR), Shambala (UK) Glastonbury (UK), Reading (UK), Download (UK) Lollapalooza (DE). During ADE, reusable water bottles are allowed at the Melkweg which will host Metropole Orkest, Oliver Heldens, Colin Benders, GoldFish and Sam Feldt, among others. If you’re planning to bring your reusable water bottle to another ADE music event, always check with the organization beforehand to avoid losing your precious bottle at the entrance.

High quality of the low lands

In some countries it’s ill-advised to drink from the tap, but in The Netherlands it’s quite the opposite, as Dutch tap water is clean as it can get and of exceptionally high quality. It’s tested and filtered daily by Het Waterlaboratorium, which checks for various substances and also tests the taste, smell, and temperature. They ensure the water is clear and measure its hardness or softness. Regular tests are also conducted to check for microplastics and PFAS. Meanwhile, the foul-tasting chlorine is notoriously absent from the Dutch tap water. As you can read below, we use the beach, not bleach.

Purified by nature

The dunes to the west of Amsterdam serve an unusual purpose: 66% of Amsterdam’s drinking water is purified in what we call De Amsterdamse Waterleidingduinen. This has been the case since 1853. As a result, the water doesn’t need to be transported from afar or stored in plastic bottles for long periods. This beautiful nature reserve is also open for hikes. And this being in the dunes, it’s close to the breezy North Sea. So if you crave some fresh air during ADE, it’s highly recommended to take a walk on the wildest side of Amsterdam, where you might even spot fox and fallow deer.

Travel light, get water on the go

Eager to refill but not sure where? Well, Amsterdam boasts 600+ publicly accessible water taps providing the highest quality of tasty drinking water, for free! You can easily find your nearest water tap by typing ‘Water Tap’ into Google Maps, because Dopper included them. So whether you’re traveling from your home, hotel, or train station through downtown Amsterdam to ADE Green, you now know where to go for a refill. Arriving at Schiphol? The airport has stopped the sale of plastic bottles at some of their stores, while making complimentary tap water more widely available. Traveling by train? The NS stations have a total of 200 water taps, so at nearly every station you can refill your bottle on the go.

Just refill at ADE Green

Want to join Dopper’s mission to end packaged water and its negative impact on the planet? Then bring your reusable water bottle to Amsterdam and just refill it with tap water at stations, hotels, in the city, and of course, at Felix Meritis during ADE Green. That said, there’s ony 2 weeks left before ADE Green – and previous editions have always sold out. Make sure to secure your ticket before it’s too late!

This article was written in collaboration with Dopper. Words by Niels Arnbak, images by Dopper, Angelina Nikolayeva, and Stichting Waternet.