As 2018 comes to an end, we’re taking stock and celebrating some of the incredible achievements you’ve helped make happen.
Collins Dictionary has named ‘single-use’ the word of 2018 which to many may seem trivial. But for anyone who works in, or supports environmental causes, this acknowledgement is hugely significant. It highlights the wave of change that has well and truly risen over the past 12 months in the wake of Blue Planet 2. 🌊
Next year will bring a new word, and perhaps even a new hope for the future. But we’re still faced with some difficult facts about the state of our relationship with the world we live in. A million plastic bottles are sold every minute around the world. The figure is expected to grow by 20% by 2021.
7.7 billion plastic water bottles are used each year in the UK . Almost half of these are NOT recycled and up to 700,000 are littered every day. There are now over 159 plastic bottles for every mile of beach in the UK. Plastic bottles making up a third of all plastic pollution in the sea.
£1 buys you 1,000 litres of tap water in the UK but sometimes not even a half litre of bottled water.
2018 Refill highlights 🙌
Here’s what we’ve been doing , with your help, to drive the rise of the reusables, preventing plastic pollution caused by single-use plastic bottles. The Refill Revolution is well and truly underway and we can’t wait to see what 2019 brings.
A growing community
What started as a grassroots scheme here in Bristol, has exploded into a national movement. We’ve quadrupled in size and continue to grow into the new year. Thanks to our amazing network of volunteers and community groups, there are now over 127 Refill schemes across the UK . From Penzance to Edinburgh, see if there is a scheme near you or find out how to get involved here.
Google Trends search results for ‘single use’ from 2008 to present day
Our FREE Refill app has now been downloaded over 90,000 times. Thousands of you have been refilling on the regular — preventing millions of plastic bottles from ending up in landfill — or worse, in our oceans.
If all of our Refill Stations are used just once a week, we’re saving more than 5 million bottles at the source every year.
There are now a whopping 15,000 Refill Stations on the app . High-street chains like Costa, Starbucks and Greggs are signed up. Along with thousands of incredible, independent businesses who are committed to reducing single-use plastic. Know a local business that wants to sign up? Add them on the app or sign them up here (with their permission).
Next year, we’ll be working with partners like Heathrow Airport, Network Rail and the Mayor of London. We want to make it easier than ever to find free tap water on the go whilst travelling. Something we know isn’t always easy! We also want to make sure the hundreds of new (and old) public fountains across the UK are on the map. So more people than ever before can find their fill on the go.
We’re going global 🌍
Watch this space for Refill Worldwide . We’ve been working on some exciting plans to launch internationally. If you’re planning a trip abroad next year, make sure you’ve got the Refill app and find free water refills on your travels.
National Refill Day ✔️
This year, on the 27th of September, we launched our first ever National Refill Day. We had help from hundreds of volunteers and communities across the UK. We asked the public if they had the bottle to prevent plastic pollution at the source, by switchingfrom single-use to a reusable bottle. The answer was a resounding YES!
Thanks to your support, we successfully reached over 33 million people through social media alone! We’ll be running National Refill Day again this summer — so watch this space for more details and some exciting plans….
Chilly’s x Refill
We continue to enjoy working with our friends at Chilly’s Bottles to bring you the highest quality, super-stylish, eco-friendly bottles. For every Refill X bottle sold, Chilly’s kindly donate £10 to City to Sea to help fund our vital campaigning work. Haven’t got yours yet? Start the year in style, ready to refill and get your hands on one here.
Thank you from the bottle of our hearts ❤
We couldn’t have achieved any of this without the hard work and dedication of our incredible volunteers. Without you guys making the decision to pass on plastic and join the Refill Revolution!
Together we can make a difference — our individual actions have a global impact.
Love,
The Refill team x