Klean Voices: My Travel Companion

Buongiorno! It's six in the morning. It is still dark outside, and I am waiting for my flight to Amsterdam in the Venice airport.

I just had my breakfast at a bar in the departure hall: a nice cappuccino and a brioche (Italian pastry). The coffee was served in a normal, "for here" cup or mug. Like in most Italian bars, there were no coffee-to-go cups. It’s a good tradition and I hope it will survive the growing demand for disposable to-go cups.

As always, when I travel around in Europe my travel companion is with me. It's a 27oz Reflect Klean Kanteen bottle. I love the steel's shiny look and the clean design. And, I love that the water still tastes like fresh water even if you carry it around for more than a day.

Before I passed the security to enter the departure hall, I emptied the bottle completely and kept the lid off so the security staff could see easily see that there was no liquid inside. Once in the departure hall, I filled it up with tap water in the restroom.

Now, boarding has started, so a lot of companion travelers are lining up; I count the travelers. I see that most of them are tourists with a plastic disposable water bottle. I keep counting, and get to 24. I suspect all of them bought their bottle at one of the coffee bars together with their last nice Italian cappuccino… in a normal cup. Even though they're drinking their coffee at the bar, they're buying water to-go. What if we stopped serving water in this way? Would they be more inclined to bring their own?

Klean Voice contributor Henry Hoogenveen is a passionate advocate for the outdoors, and represents Klean Kanteen in Europe. As such, he shares events, information, trends and happenings from across the ocean right here on the Klean Blog.