MIAMI (CNN) — A new startup called Tap has a bold ambition: convince people to stop buying plastic bottles of water.
Tap launched an app Tuesday that displays nearby clean drinking water locations, from restaurants and retail stores to public water fountains so you can refill your water bottle.
“Water is a mispriced public good,” founder Samuel Rosen told CNN Business.
“I believe we, as consumers, have been robbed of our own water and sold back to us by corporations.” Rosen is the co-founder and former CEO of on-demand storage startup MakeSpace.
In November 2017, he left his CEO role at the startup.
He came up with the concept for his next startup after paying $5 for a bottle of Evian at the airport.
By making it easy and inexpensive to find water nearby, Tap hopes people will cut down on plastic waste and change their behavior.
Consumers may also start seeing blue “Tap” signs in store windows signaling the business is friendly to thirsty guests.
Earlier this month, the UN Intergovernmental Panel released a bombshell climate change report that warned global warming is on track to have a disastrous impact if nothing changes by 2030.
The report said the impact could result in extreme drought, wildfires, floods and food shortages for hundreds of millions of people.