The refill app, launched by the Refill campaign, City to Sea and Water UK, connects people who are looking for water with local businesses, transport hubs and public spaces.
Participating cafes, bars, restaurants, banks, galleries, museums and other businesses simply sign up to the app and put a sticker in their window which will alter passers-by that they are welcome to go in and fill up their bottle, even without a purchase.
In the UK, 7.7 billion plastic water bottles are used each year, with the average person using 150 plastic water bottles per year, more than three a week.
Natalie Fee, founder and CEO of City to Sea, said: “It’s been incredible to watch the campaign flourish over the past two years. We wanted to do something that everyone could get on-board with, that would drastically reduce the amount of pointless plastic we use when we’re out and about. People want to help stop plastic pollution, and Refill puts the power to do just that, in people’s hands."
The app now has over 12,000 refill stations in the UK and includes train stations, airports and high street chains like Starbucks, Costa and Greggs.
It was also revealed today (27 September) that John Lewis has become the first department store to join, Morrisons the first supermarket and Heathrow Airport as the first official transport hub, who have also been pioneering the reduction of plastic bottle pollution in the aviation sector.
Michael Roberts, chief executive of Water UK, the trade body representing all the major water companies in the UK, said: “As an industry with a strong focus on the environment we are passionate about tackling the problems caused by plastic bottles, which clog up rivers and drains, and pollute our seas.
On national refill day, people can help turn this harmful tide of plastic waste by downloading the app and switching to a re-useable bottle. This country has some of the best drinking water in the world and we want everyone to benefit from it. This scheme will do that by making it easier for people to refill their bottles for free wherever they work, rest, shop or play.”
A survey by One Poll, commissioned by City to Sea, showed that 85% of the public were worried about the impact of plastic pollution in the environment, and 80% of those surveyed sometimes use a reusable water bottle when outside the home, with 44% making the switch in the last two years and 15% in the last year.
However, the survey also revealed that there are still barriers to people carrying a reusable bottle. 33% of people felt very or somewhat uncomfortable asking to have their reusable bottle filled when they were not making a purchase, but said that if they knew where they could fill up for free, they would.
City to Sea and Water UK joined forced in January to grow the refill campaign from a local grassroots scheme to a national movement.
As part of the partnership, every water company in England has aimed to ensure people can refill their water bottles in every major town and city across the UK by 2021 and it has been predicted that it could save a billion bottles by 2025.
The weight of plastic saved by removing one billion plastic bottles is equal to 12,700 metric tonnes, the equivalent to 2,100 African elephants.
Single-use plastic bottles are expensive to produce, use up valuable natural resources to make and transport, and create mountains of waste once they have been used and discarded.
So far, recycling does not appear to be adequately dealing with the problem, as it is estimated that around half of the 38.5 million plastic bottles used in the UK every day are recycled, with around 16 million ending up in landfill, being burnt, or entering the environment and waterways.