You can help stop plastic pollution if ‘you’ve got the bottle’ for it
Hastings Green have thrown down a challenge to local people to help stop plastic pollution at source by calling on the residents of Hastings and St Leonards to support ‘National Refill Day’ this Thursday (Sept 27th).
Local people are being encouraged to carry a reusable bottle and share their experiences on social media about how easy it is to find places to refill their bottles using the hashtags #RefillRevolution and #NationalRefillDay to help spread the word. There’s even a free smart phone app to help.
On Saturday Hastings Green Party and Transition Town Hastings launched Refill Hastings, a new water bottle refill scheme for Hastings, at the Ocean Symposium at St Mary in the Castle. Over 50 local businesses in Hastings have already signed up to the scheme, displaying blue ‘Free Tap Water Available Here’ stickers to let people know that they’re welcome to ask for a free water refill. The free Refill stations can also be located using an app, available to download for free from https://www.refill.org.uk. The app also works for other similar schemes across the UK.
Hastings Greens will be promoting the scheme at the Hastings Green Fair at the Stade Hall this Sunday from 11am to 4pm as well as at a family-friendly ‘Great Plastic Purge’ with quizzes, cakes and songs, hosted by ecologically-minded drag queen Timberlina, at The Beacon on Saturday from 2pm to 4pm.
Julia Hilton of Hastings Green party said: “The UK currently uses 13 billion plastic bottles every year, but only 7.5 billion of these are recycled with the remaining 5.5 billion either landfilled, littered, or incinerated but we are also lucky enough to have some of the best quality tap water in the world – and with the Refill app it’s easier and cheaper to carry a bottle and refill it than to constantly buy new bottles. By taking part in National Refill Day this Thursday and telling the world about it on social media, we can help make carrying a bottle the norm and make sure people know how easy it is to find their refill.”
- Some useful links
- [1] https://hastings.greenparty.org.uk
[2] https://www.facebook.com/events/342947486449039/
[3] http://www.sustainabilityonsea.org.uk/event/big-green-fair-on-stade-open-space/
[4] http://www.sustainabilityonsea.org.uk/event/great-plastic-purge-with-timberlina/
[5] House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee Plastic bottles: Turning Back the Plastic Tide First Report of Session 2017–19, https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmenvaud/339/339.pdf