Steps taken to stop single-use plastic water bottles being bought in Eastbourne

An organisation that works to improve how we protect the planet is trying to stop single-use water bottles being purchased in Eastbourne.
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Plastic Free Eastbourne (PFE) is also the coordinator of Refill Eastbourne, an initiative that aims to get refill stations up and down the UK.

PFE set up ‘Spring Water Way’ – a string of 10 refill stations spanning from Harbour Reach near Sovereign Harbour to the National Trust Visitors Centre in Birling Gap.

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PFE director Oliver Sterno said, “My ambition is to provide a network of refill stations across Eastbourne so that nobody need ever have to buy a single-use plastic bottle of water again.

Plastic Free Eastbourne SUS-220113-074833001Plastic Free Eastbourne SUS-220113-074833001
Plastic Free Eastbourne SUS-220113-074833001

“Everyone simply tops up their reusable bottle. A comparison: the cost of the water in one plastic bottle of water is equivalent to 500 times the same volume of water out of a tap.”

Residents can find their closest refill station by using the Refill app. There are 14,000 stations across the UK registered to the app, so wherever you go there should be one close by.

PFE said, “The average adult buys more than three plastic water bottles every week - a startling 175 bottles every year per person. In total, some 7.7 billion plastic bottles are bought across the UK each year, resulting in substantial amounts of single-use plastic waste.

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“The average UK household uses 480 plastic bottles a year, but only recycles 270 of them – meaning nearly half are not put in the recycling. This means that nationally, of the over 35 million plastic bottles being used every day in the UK, nearly 16 million plastic bottles aren’t being put out for recycling. If just one in ten Brits refilled once a week, we’d have 340 million less plastic bottles a year in circulation!”

Refill station outside Holywell toilet block SUS-220113-074407001Refill station outside Holywell toilet block SUS-220113-074407001
Refill station outside Holywell toilet block SUS-220113-074407001

A YouGov survey commissioned by Brita Professional and Keep Britain Tidy found that 64 per cent of consumers would be more likely to return for future purchases if they could refill their water bottle and 73 per cent would view a business more favourably if it gave free tap water on request.