Used plastic water bottles are a growing waste and environmental cost. Smart city water refill technology firm HOPE Hydration wants to cut the number of plastic water bottles in circulation by expanding availability of modern water refilling. The firm has just partnered T-Mobile to ensure its IoT-connected water refilling technology is more agile and flexible.

HOPE Hydration uses connected technology in its water dispensing city units for quality control, measurement, predictive maintenance, environmental monitoring and software updates. Partnering with T-Mobile is designed to increase reliability and quality of connectivity with each field unit, and to make it easier to deploy water refilling stations for public events, seasonal visitor patterns, and city-wide installations.

The company’s aim is to increase reuse of water bottles in the US. At present 86% of all plastic water bottles become landfill waste according to Container Recycling Institute. HOPE aims to address this through IoT-enabled quality and temperature controlled connected water refilling stations dispensing free Pentair Everpure filtered and chilled water touch-free, to reduce contaminants.

HOPE employs connected IoT technology to ensure water temperature and filter quality, monitor usage and the amount of water dispensed, calculate the amount of plastic and carbon dioxide saved and manage in-unit advertising displays. It also employs connected technology to control settings and scheduled maintenance, enable partnering brands to track and achieve sponsorship and sustainability goals and provide over-the-air firmware and software updates.

“HOPE Hydration is thrilled to work with T-Mobile as our connectivity and IoT provider,” said Jorge Richardson, Founder and CEO of HOPE Hydration. “We believe access to free, clean water is a human right. This collaboration allows us to bring HOPE, and our stations to the next level while building smart-city solutions for a more sustainable future.”

“We’re all about leveraging our network, scale and resources to be a force for good in the world we live in, and it’s clear that HOPE shares that passion,” said Callie Field, President, T-Mobile Business Group. “Access to clean, sustainable drinking water lies at the core of societal and environmental well-being — and we love how HOPE’s innovative HydroStation technology is creating more access while reducing environmental impact.”