Bucks joins national campaign to cut plastic waste

Environment

Single-use plastic bottles are a massive cause of plastic waste and pollution, with an estimated 7.7 billion plastic water bottles used each year in the UK. That’s why Buckinghamshire County Council is joining the national call to reduce this largely avoidable problem by supporting National Refill Day on 19 June.

But National Refill Day isn’t just for one day – we’re asking people to use the day to make the switch permanently to using a refillable bottle for their water on the go.

As well as a call to action on using reusable bottles, Refill Day is part of the wider Refill campaign, which seeks to make tap water available in more places so that when you’re out and about, it’s always easy to refill your bottle for free.

There are already about 100 Refill Stations in Buckinghamshire already, and the best way to find one that’s convenient for you is to download the app to your mobile phone. Participating premises will also display a Refill window sticker.

But it isn’t only businesses that are joining the Refill revolution. Beaconsfield is soon to install a new public water fountain after the project – championed by theWomen’s Institute and the ‘Plastic-Free Beaconsfield’ campaign -won the Beaconsfield Decides local funding ballot.

The County Council’s Deputy Cabinet Member for Planning & Environment Clive Harriss said: “It’s really important that we all recycle our waste plastic properly, taking care that it doesn’t contaminate the environment. But it’s better still if we avoid creating plastic waste in the first place – and using a refillable water bottle is an excellent way of doing this.

“The UK has some of the best-quality tap water in the world, so why not seize the moment and do your bit to reduce plastic waste by switching to a refillable water bottle?”

Facts and stats

  • A million plastic bottles are sold every minute around the world – a figure that’s expected to grow by 20% by 2021 (source: Euromonitor International’s global packaging trends report).
  • Of the 13 billion plastic bottles used in the UK each year – an estimated 7.7 billion, or nearly 60% are plastic water bottles (source: RECOUP (RECycling of Used Plastics Limited) cited in: House of Commons, ‘Plastic bottles: Turning Back the Plastic Tide’).