Sara Ashley O’Brien, CNN Business – 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 cofounder and former CEO of on-demand storage startup MakeSpace.
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.
Eight million tons of plastic enter the water each year, according to the World Economic Forum, and more plastic is expected in our oceans than fish by 2050 in terms of weight, if our current usage of plastic continues.
But Tap isn’t the first to connect people to clean drinking water.

But water?
Launched on Oct. 23, Tap app helps you find free water near you, according to Forbes.
Created by entrepreneur Samuel Ian Rosen, Tap allows smartphone users across the world to find the closest free public drinking fountains or water bottle refill stations, says Forbes, including businesses and restaurants that have signed up as a part of the global Tap Authorized Refill Network.
“Nobody up till now has built a Google Map for (drinking) water,” Rosen told Forbes.
When I go to Google Map and type ‘water fountain,’ there is nothing.
"I thought it was ridiculous that in 2018 I’m buying a plastic water bottle that’s going to last 450 years on earth because I couldn’t trust the drinking water at the fountain."
Jack Taylor/Getty Images News/Getty Images Tap shows you in real-time where you can find water, says mindbodygreen, and you can filter (no pun intended) by what kind of water you’re looking for, such as flavored, sparkling, and, well, filtered water.
The app also shows you “water ATMs,” where you can buy unpackaged water to refill an existing water bottle, Forbes reports.
It’s great for them —they get more people who are eco-conscious coming into their store,” Rosen told the Philly Voice.
Jack Taylor/Getty Images News/Getty Images Rosen isn’t the first to attempt to launch an app aimed at helping people find public sources of free drinking water.

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.
"I believe we, as consumers, have been robbed of our own water and sold back to us by corporations."
Rosen is the cofounder and former CEO of on-demand storage startup MakeSpace.
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.
But Tap isn’t the first to connect people to clean drinking water.
Nonprofit WeTap, an app that has been around for about six years, helps people find to the closest public drinking fountains.
But Rosen is steadfast: "The future is bottle-less."

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.

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