Enjoy your water, prevent plastic waste
Ludo has a lovely, colourful reusable water flask that a friend of hers bought her when she was away in Sardinia last year. She carries it with her everywhere. She noticed recently that there is a real drive in her area to get people to refill their bottles. So, this is instead of buying plastic bottles of course. The local council has put up Re:fill Brixton banners on lamp posts to make local residents more aware.
Re:fill
The idea is to help try to establish a new norm by refilling your reusable water flask. This not only reduces litter but cuts down on single-use plastics too. Brixton can get messy so the hope is that everyone gets involved and tries their best to reduce their use of single-use plastics.
There are refill water stations popping up throughout London. Jon has noticed that there is one outside Willesden Green station now, although he’s not sure it’s working yet! You can download a Re:fill app so that when you are out you can find somewhere to fill up. There are also local cafés where you can get a refill. The app will show you where you can find them so you will never be without a full flask!
As spring and summer approach and with the temperatures rising due to global warming, it will be more important to keep hydrated. So, do your bit, go out and buy a flask and start refilling. You will find, as Ludo and Jon have, that it feels much better to refill and leads to cleaner streets
Deposit Return Scheme
Less than half of the 35 million plastic bottles that British people throw away every day are recycled.
Campaign to Protect Rural England were campaigning last year to introduce a deposit return scheme for plastic bottles and other litter similar to what they do in Germany and Norway mirroring the milk bottle scheme. They did an online survey on YouGov website and almost three-quarters would support a deposit return scheme (DRS). Also, the councils would benefit financially from the introduction of such a scheme. The former environment secretary, Michael Gove, is keen on developing this concept.
A few brands are committed to increasing the percentage of recycled materials in the bottles they produce, like the water brand Smart Water which now produces a bottle that is 100% recycled and 100% recyclable.
100% recycled plastic bottle of water
