CAFÉS and restaurants in Swindon have joined a national scheme to offer free water re-fills to reduce the number of plastic bottles littering the town.

Darkroom Espresso, Pulse, The Core, Ray’s Ice Cream, as well as chains Costa Coffee and Nando's have signed up to display blue Refill stickers, signalling to shoppers they can top up their reusable bottles with tap water.

Refill is a nationwide scheme aimed at helping people reduce their reliance on single-use bottles.

Holly Snyder, who is launching the scheme in Swindon, told the Adver: “It’s great that Swindon has joined the national campaign to reduce single-use waste.

“It can also help to bring community spirit to the town.

“You notice the blue sticker and you know what it’s about and that everyone is involved in something as a whole.

“A few of the members of the team have been shops in the town and they’ve got some really positive feedback.

“We would like to have somewhere in every location where people can just go and re-fill their bottle.

“We’re not the most environmentally aware of towns and this is something that is so easy, everyone can carry a reusable bottle.

“I recommended using a steel one. They’re really good at keeping water cold as well, because if you put cold water into a plastic one it tends to heat up again.

“It’s the first simple step towards becoming plastic-free, it’s going to take a long time, but this is a step in the right direction.”

Councillor Kevin Parry, deputy mayor of Swindon, who helped launch the scheme, said: “I’ve recycled for many years and I’m quite passionate about it. The Blue Planet programme was a great wake-up call for showing how shocking the impact of plastic waste can be.

“I’m fully supportive of this campaign and I was delighted to launch it. Anything we can do as a town to reduce plastic waste has got to be a positive step and it’ s really good I think to see small and national businesses coming out to support it. The less plastic we use, the less litter we’re going to create and that has to be a positive impact on the town centre.”

Businesses wanting to sign up can apply for a sticker by contacting Holly on refill.swindon@gmail.com.