Volunteers help launch Refill Wellington
Refill Wellington launched today with a group of volunteers visiting businesses in the town centre to sign them up as Refill Stations.
The idea of Refill Wellington is to make refilling your water bottle as easy and convenient as possible.
Cafes, bars, restaurants and other businesses were asked to sign up to the free Refill app and put a sticker in their window alerting passers-by to the fact they’re welcome to fill up their bottle for free.
More than 15 businesses have signed up including Nanny’s Craft Bakery, Beatons tearoom, Dun Cow, Market Hall Café, Newsline, the Steaming Mug, Ken Francis butchers, the Cake Box, Maddie’s and the Pheasant Inn.
It’s estimated that around 7.7 billion plastic water bottles are bought across the UK each year, resulting in substantial amounts of single-use plastic waste ending up in our oceans.
Refill Wellington is being led by Wellington Town Council, with support from Telford & Wrekin Council.
City to Sea, a not-for-profit organisation headed by campaigner Natalie Fee, launched the award-winning Refill Campaign in 2015. It’s estimated that the scheme, now being rolled out nationwide with support from Water UK and local water companies, will cut plastic bottle use by tens of millions each year, as well as substantially increasing the availability of high-quality drinking water.
According to Refill, if just 1 in 10 Brits refilled just once a week, we’d save around 340 million plastic bottles a year!
Earlier in the summer, Telford & Wrekin Council announced that every Council library would offer free Refills as part of the scheme, in addition to Newport swimming pool, Café Go in Addenbrooke House, Café at Telford Town Park, Horsehay Golf and Leisure Centre and Costa at Southwater One.
Wellington Town Councillor, Paul Davis, said: “Plastics, including single-use plastic bottles, are now one of the most frequently found type of litter in the UK. You don’t have to look far to find them littering our own towns and green spaces.
“We’re delighted with the turn out from volunteers today and I’d like to thank them and the businesses that we signed up.
“Refill Wellington will give us all the opportunity to help make reduce this type of litter while having the bonus of saving us all money."
Councillor Hilda Rhodes, cabinet member at Telford & Wrekin Council, said: “We’re delighted to be supporting Refill Wellington and to have been here today to sign up new Refill Stations.
“We’re looking forward to working with the Town Council and local community to reduce single-use plastic in the area.
“There’s already lots of great work going in the borough with many people working to help reduce single-use plastic.
“The Council is playing its part by reviewing all the materials and products we use and to cut out single-use plastic wherever possible.”
Refill Regional Coordinator, James Watt, explains why they’re supporting Refill Telford: “We’re so excited that Wellington is joining the Refill movement and making a real difference by reducing reliance on single-use plastics.
“Every time we refill a re-usable bottle we save our own money and the planet’s resources, and all those individual refills add up to a huge impact. It’s great to see so many local businesses supporting Refill Wellington by signing up to provide free refills.”
