For as long as history is written, reference will be made to a singular event during my lifetime.
In 1969 man walked on the moon. As a schoolboy I witnessed it like millions more, live on TV.
Not all schoolchildren get to live through such historic episodes but one senses that today’s generation have become witness to another.
Hopefully historians will record Covid 19 as a solitary episode, in the way they refer to the terrible flu pandemic of 1918. An event we endured and a threat we overcame.
They say every threat is an opportunity and for those of us involved in endorsing reusable water bottles, so this might prove. Those difficult lockdown months gave us at NDA Packaging Services an opportunity to seek enhancements to the products and service we provide, ready for return.
In truth, we were always in a positive space. For nearly two decades we’ve championed retaining and reusing a personalised water bottle. Principally of course for health and environmental reasons, encouraging healthier hydration and reducing single use plastic waste have been our business fundamentals
Clearly, in 2020 another consideration has emerged with a renewed significance on hygiene, especially hand hygiene. As schools and businesses reopen, here too we are well poised.
“Hands Free” after all has been our stock in trade. It was we who introduced “hands free“ valve closures into the UK reusable bottle market around 2003. They’re even linked to 1969 and Apollo 11, since our valve technology was actually developed by NASA to keep astronauts hydrated.
In the UK we pioneered their use initially in schools, where they have become hugely popular. Not only was the valve closure safe (no choking hazards), secure (leak free) but more hygienic, too. Children were no longer required to handle the lids to use them.
Today that’s a benefit stronger than ever. As too is the ability to personally distinguish our bottles, for users to mark and identify the bottle as theirs. Most schools already added a Name Box to their logo in our printed bottles. We’re now also seeing an increase in demand for opur our Name Bottles, designed specifically for such personal identification purposes.
It’s not just in reusable bottles that we’ve made our “hands-free” mark. Hydrachill Ltd our sister company have successfully pioneered HydraChill Water Refill Stations, designed to improve ‘on the go’ access to mains fed drinking water. HydraChills have a unique retractable dispensing head with eliminate any possibility of cross contact contamination.
HydraChill Ltd have also newly launched wall mounted refilling stations with sensor operated “hands free” automatic filling, which we are already helping sell into schools.
So as a new term begins, or maybe a new era, better hygiene will unquestionably be part of it. As you prepare your reusable bottle or water dispenser orders, be sure that we are ready.
Actually, we always were.
