PRESS RELEASE NATIONAL REFILL SCHEME DAY 19TH JUNE 2019

Sevenoaks Town Council now has over 15 Refill Stations. You can now refill your water bottles at the following locations:

Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, Cafe on the Vine, Cafe at Bat & Ball Station, Rafferty's, Eat'n'Mess, Malabar, The Stag Theatre, The Cafe and Sandwich Bar, Sevenoaks District Council, Bill's, Costa Coffee, Hollybush Cafe, Liquor Box & Pantry, The Royal Oak New Ash Green, The White Horse – Sundridge and The Chequers Inn - Heaverham

Greggs, Pret and Sweaty Betty are the latest chains to sign up to provide free drinking water for all - taking the total number of Refill stations nationally to more than 20,000. It is estimated that the Refill campaign will have stopped over 100 million single-use bottles from becoming waste by the end of 2019

As part of the award-winning Refill campaign, the UK public are being urged take part in National Refill Day on June 19th, in a bid to prevent plastic pollution caused by single-use plastic water bottles. The goal of National Refill Day is to normalise refilling and make sure everyone, everywhere knows how easy it is to find free drinking water on the go.

On Wednesday 19th June here in Sevenoaks, our Refill Scheme is asking for people to get onboard by signing up their business and doing their bit to make a difference to our environment.

In a survey commissioned by City to Sea, 85% of the public said they are worried about the impact of plastic pollution in the environment. However, despite the public wanting to take action on plastic pollution, sales of bottled water continue to grow.

According to the Environmental Audit Committee consumption of bottled water has doubled over the last 15 years, with over 7 billion plastic water bottles used each year in the UK[1]. Sadly, many of these end up in our environment with a predicted 700,000 plastic bottles littered every single day in the UK[2].

The Refill campaign, which was set up by not-for-profit City to Sea, works by connecting people who are looking for water, with thousands of local business, transport hubs and public spaces where they can refill for free via a location-based app. The number of Refill points listed on the app in the UK has just passed 20,000, including train stations, airports and high street chains like Starbucks, Costa and Wetherspoons. As part of the activity for National Refill Day it’s been revealed that Greggs, Sweaty Betty and Park Dean Holiday Resorts have recently pledged their support and are now listed on the free Refill app.

Natalie Fee, founder of City to Sea, the organisation behind the Refill campaign, said: “It’s been incredible to watch the Refill campaign flourish over the past few years. National Refill Day is something that everyone can get onboard with and has the potential to drastically reduce the amount of unnecessary single-use plastic we use when we’re out and about. People want to help prevent plastic pollution, and Refill puts the power to do that in their hands.”

So come on Sevenoaks lets do our bit to help the environment!

Any businesses that wish to sign up to the scheme need only to email their details to admin.tp@sevenoakstown.gov.uk