Royal Wagenborg opts for sustainability with Hatenboer-Water bottle filling stations

“Each year, around 180,000 bottles of water are used on board of our vessels,” says Superintendent Izak van Rhijn. “These bottles are made of single-use plastic, resulting in 2.8 tons of plastic waste. Although we collect our waste and deliver it separately ashore, we consider this environmental impact difficult to justify as a sustainable shipping company. Therefore we found it very hard to justify this environmental impact and we started looking for alternatives.”

In that search, Royal Wagenborg came across Hatenboer-Water's bottle filling stations. “The bunker tanks on board contain fresh water, but after purification there is a chlorine-like taste to the water. There is a filter in the Hatenboer-Water stations to remove this unpleasant smell and taste. The result is delicious fresh chilled water that is perfectly suitable for consumption”, says Van Rhijn.

And that is not just a sales pitch, according to the reaction of Captain Van Gorkum of the Reestborg. “We got a water bottle filling station on board. The crew is enthusiastic about the good taste of the water and makes full use of the tap. Now we no longer have to carry large quantities of drinking water in plastic bottles.”

Positive reactions were also heard from the other five test vessels and checks show that the water meets all safety standards. That is why Wagenborg has decided to expand the test to another thirty vessels. “If it also suffices there, it is certainly the intention to provide all our vessels with a bottle filling station”, concludes Van Rhijn.