A Travel Trend We Like

If you’re like me, you drink water from a glass or a reusable container when you’re home or about town. But when you travel it’s a different story.

Throwaway plastic bottles remain the most convenient way for hotels to distribute water, generating trash that often ends up in our oceans. Now the Whole World Water campaign wants to fix the problem, and also bring clean water to nearly one billion people without it.

“The idea is for every hotel to filter its own water in reusable glass bottles, sell it to guests, and donate 10 percent of the proceeds to support clean water projects,” explains Sonu Shivdasani, co-founder of Whole World Water and chairman of Soneva Resorts.

Benefits are far-reaching: no pollution generated from shipping crates of Evian and S. Pellegrino to luxury hotels; no toxins created from manufacturing plastic; and funds going to solve a problem plaguing the world’s poor.

Among hotels and hotel groups that have signed on: Ritz-Carlton, Virgin, Six Senses, and Banyan Tree.

Costas Christ is an editor at large at National Geographic Traveler magazine. Follow his story on Twitter.

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