Refill in the News…
Refill is an award-winning campaign to prevent plastic pollution at source by making it easier to reuse and refill your water bottle on the go than to buy a single-use plastic bottle.
Key Stats
- Refill was piloted in Bristol in October 2015 and has since grown internationally.
- Refill is run by City to Sea, a not-for-profit, plastic pollution campaigning organisation.
- There are now almost 300 Refill Schemes across the UK.
- There are now more than 25,000 Refill Stations on the app in the UK alone – including railway stations, airports and high street chains such as Greggs, Pret and Wetherspoons.
- We have over 260,000 Refill app downloads and 56,000 average monthly app users as of August 2019.
- In 2018 we reached 33 million with our first National Refill Day and in 2019 we more than doubled that reaching over 70 million.
- Refill won Gold for ‘Best Environmental Behaviour Change’ at the Global Good Awards in 2018.
Updated: August 2019.
Press Room
- New Refill water stations in Wales were reported on the BBC news.
- Refill was recently listed on the Top 10 Best Sustainability Apps in Vogue.
- The Telegraph reported on water fountains in airports.
- Refill featured as part of an eco-living feature in The Times magazine.
- The Evening Standard celebrated the impact of the Refill scheme in London.
- The Refill revolution was the focus of an episode on the BBC News World Service.
- The Mirror reported on Pret A Manager joining the scheme.
- Refill was included in a Keep Britain Tidy report on Litter and Environmental Quality.
- ITV News reported on our Isle of Man scheme.
- Refill features in the Money Saving Expert‘s guide to Tap Water rights.
- Water UK featured Refill on their blog.
- Featured in the Eco warrior Princess blog for the 10 best sustainable lifestyle app to help you live clean, green and ethical.
Hugh’s War on Plastic
The BBC’s TV series War on Plastic with Hugh and Anita is currently airing on Monday evenings on BBC One.
Refill is thrilled to have been featured on Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s new programme, which examines the impact of plastic in Britain today.
- Watch the episodes on BBC iPlayer.
- Hugh wrote an article on the BBC website.
- The programme has had coverage from The Huffington Post, i News, The Telegraph, The Times, and The Financial Times.
Plastic Facts
- Every minute, one million plastic bottles are bought around the world, and that figure is expected to go up 20% by 2021 [1]
- Plastic bottles now make up one-third of all plastic pollution in the sea [2].
- Consumption of bottled water has doubled over the last 15 years, with over 7 billion plastic water bottles used each year in the UK [3].
- Plastic bottles make up 26% of total plastic packaging [4].
- Bottled water is almost 1,000 times more carbon intensive than drinking mains tap water [5].
Media Enquires
To find out more about the campaign, and to request our media pack, please contact Jo Morley ([email protected]) or Emma Heesom ([email protected]).
References:
1. Euromonitor International’s global packaging trends report.
2. House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee Plastic bottles: Turning Back the Plastic Tide First Report of Session 2017–19
3. House of Commons, ‘Plastic bottles: Turning Back the Plastic Tide’ – Source: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmenvaud/339/33905.htm
4. Ellen MacArthur Foundation, The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the Future of Plastics (January 2016)
5. Seas at Risk, Single-use Plastics and the Marine Environment: https://seas-at-risk.org/images/pdf/publications/SeasAtRiskSummarysingleUseplasticandthemarineenvironment.compressed.pdf
