Starting a new job is never easy, but one new employee is gushing on Reddit over a rather simple way her office is saving her money and saving the planet.
The Reddit user posts, "Look at this gem in my new job, just started wish me luck [y'al]l and send me all your good vibes."
The post was accompanied by a picture of an Elkay bottle filling station, which is essentially a water fountain designed to refill cups and water bottles. The display shows that 14,333 20-ounce water bottles have been saved by workers refilling their bottles at the station.
According to Elkay, the company produced its millionth bottle-filling station back in 2021. Over that time, it reports saving more than 40 billion plastic bottles from going into landfills. This is a pretty big feat, considering over 80% of plastic water bottles end up as trash, and it takes at least 450 years for plastic water bottles to break down in nature.
The Elkay systems use a filter to produce filtered water at employees' fingertips. You may even recognize the systems, which are popular in schools, college campuses, airports, gyms, and many public places.
And other Redditors were quick to share their run-ins with the systems.
"[I] absolutely love these! Several airports have them!" one Redditor comments. And rightfully so. They're a great replacement for the often overpriced plastic bottles sold at airport stores.
"I'm sure airport stores hate it because it means they can't sell us a tiny bottle of water for $4," another Redditor responds.
Another commenter shares a picture of a bottle filling station, which they say was in an "awkward" corner of the office that was being renovated. Since, at the time, they were the only person using the machine, the Redditor made it a personal mission to hit 500 bottles refilled.
"LOVE this thing! …My goal was to hit the hundreds: 100...200...300... I got to 500 and a hell of a kick out of it before moving to a new job," they comment. "The water was also so nice and cold and tasty compared to what came out of the faucet."
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