Chichester businesses encouraged to offer refills to cut pollution

Campaigners at the launch of the scheme in the Assembly Room

The group launched a new scheme to introduce refill stations on every street in Chichester city centre.

Officially launched last Wednesday at the Assembly Room in Chichester, the initiative aims to tackle plastic bottle pollution and encourage participating cafés, bars, restaurants, banks, galleries, museums and other businesses to sign up to the free Refill app to offer free water from their sites.

Diana Morgan, founder of eco retail business EcoStepbyStep, said: “Here in Chichester we’re proud of the area’s stunning landscape and beaches.

“Plastics, including single-use plastic bottles, are now the most frequently found type of litter on UK beaches and you don’t have to look far to find them littering our towns and green spaces too.

“Every time we refill a re-useable bottle instead of buying and throwing away a single-use bottle we not only reduce the amount of plastic and fuel being used, we save a bit of money and help clean up our towns and open spaces too.

“We’re so excited to see the launch of Refill Chichester, which will make it easy for people to refill re-useable bottles with drinking water.

“They simply look out for the Refill stickers or check the Refill app to find out where they can refill for free.”

Mala Nathan, Refill regional co-ordinator, said: “We’re so excited that Chichester 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 Chichester by signing up to provide free refills.”

Refill Chichester builds on the success of Refill around the UK.

It now boasts a network of more than 16,000 Refill Stations.

The group said the average adult buys more than three plastic bottles per week, which results in substantial amounts of single-use plastic waste ending up in our oceans.