Choice Market Launches Effort to Remove Single-Use Plastic Water Bottles

DENVER — In celebration of Earth Day (April 22), Choice Market launched a new campaign to remove all single-use plastic water bottles from its stores by 2021. 

The retailer will install new-tech, advanced purification FloWater Refill Stations at its two current locations in the Denver metro area and at future locations.

"At Choice, there's nothing more important than the communities we serve," said Choice Market Founder and CEO Mike Fogarty. "Single-serve plastic water bottles are one of the leading items sold in our industry and yet most of these bottles end up in the landfill or the ocean. We couldn't be more excited to partner with FloWater to provide our customers with its convenient, great tasting water solution while also reducing our plastic footprint."

FloWater Refill Station technology removes up to 99.9 percent of all impurities, viruses, toxins and heavy metals from tap water. Fully self-sanitizing and with "no-contact" dispensing nozzles, the new FloWater Refill Stations enable customers to refill their reusable water bottles and other containers safely.

In addition to installing FloWater Refill Stations, Choice will offer FloWater's new, infinitely recyclable aluminum multi-use water bottles for $2.99 each.

"We are thrilled to work with Choice to eliminate single-use plastic water bottles from their stores, while providing their customers a great-tasting, safe and sustainable drinking water option," said Rich Razgaitis, co-founder and CEO of FloWater. "For the same price as a single-use plastic water bottle, consumers can now opt for the FloWater Multi-Use bottle and refill over and over again using the same bottle. In the process, we dramatically reduce single-use plastic waste and eliminate the unnecessary shipping of water, while providing retailers and consumers an option for a sustainable 'grab and go' drinking water solution."

Established in 2013 in Silicon Valley, FloWater uses a proprietary, seven-stage water purification and enhancement system to eliminate containments found in drinking water. Since the company's launch, FloWater's Refill Stations have saved more than 300 million plastic water bottles from entering the environment and is on target to hit 1 billion by the end of 2022.

Founded by Mike Fogarty in 2017 in Denver, Choice Market combines the operating hours, store size and transaction times of a traditional convenience store with the product selection of a natural grocery and fast casual restaurant. In addition to two Denver locations, the retailer plans to open three sites by the end of 2020.