It looks like it is finally happening. England’s free ‘water refill’ scheme is officially rolling out.
From the 25th of January, shops, cafes, and businesses will begin offering free water refill points in all major cities and towns. The idea is that all such spaces should offer free water refills before 2021.
Kwik Sweep, London’s specialist in waste collection and recycling, is fond of this scheme. The latter, we estimate, could reduce the use of disposable plastic bottles by tens of millions a year.
It also looks like we are not the only ones to get excited about it. Whitbread, which owns both Costa Coffee and Premier Inn, has claimed it will provide water in all of its branches from as early as March 2018.
Water refill stations will be able to be found via an app, as well as via windows signs scattered across cities.
This new scheme is intended to back up a previous initiative, the Refill campaign, which can already count on over 1,600 refill stations across the UK and operates in 13 towns and cities across England.
The following numbers should give you an idea of how important this scheme really is.
- 1,000,000 plastic bottles are sold every minute… or 20,000 per second.
- 480 billion bottles were sold in 2016.
- Less than 50% of bottles are collected for recycling.
- Only 7% are turned into new bottles.
The scheme has been launched by Water UK, which aims to “help turn this harmful tide of plastic waste,” as chief executive Michael Roberts claims.
To him, the UK “has some of the best drinking water in the world and … everyone [should] benefit from it.” He has also said that “this scheme will do that by making it easier for people to refill their bottles wherever they work, rest, shop or play.”
We at Kwik Sweep hope this initiative will be successful. However, should your waste concerns be more immediate, get in touch with us.
Kwik Sweep provides waste collection, waste removal, and recycling services across London.
We will meet all your needs, in the most eco-friendly way possible.
