Swindon businesses have joined forces to use less plastic and help the environment - and have seen a great improvement across the town in just five years.
Local shops including Swindon Pulse Wholefoods, Weigh It Up, Lush, The Town Pantry, Ten Green Bottles, have all signed up to Refill Swindon.
This is in an attempt to try and encourage customers to shop with less plastic by choosing to reuse.
In Swindon there are more than 70 places to eat, drink and shop with less waste mapped on the Refill app, coming in time to mark World Refill Day on Friday, June 16.
Refill Swindon is supporting the day in various ways, having a stall at the Swindon Hub in the town centre to discuss how to reduce, reuse, refill and repeat.
The team have been working hard to turn the tide on plastic pollution in the local area and since its formation in 2018, the scheme has grown from just mapping free water refills to reusable cups, body care, and zero-waste shops.
City to Sea are an environmental organisation aiming to stop plastic pollution which are behind World Refill Day in an attempt to achieve this goal.
Jo Morley, head of campaigns for City to Sea, said: “It’s great to see the incredible work happening in Swindon to tackle plastic pollution.
“World Refill Day is designed to get people talking about the problem, and crucially to highlight the solutions and help people take action to reduce waste.
“Our small changes might not seem like much on their own, but added together, we can make a huge difference, showing big brands, businesses, and governments that we want and need to see urgent action to tackle the plastic crisis.
City to Sea will be launching the Refill Return Cup a city wide returnable and reusable cup scheme in the South West.
“If just on in 10 Brits who normally buy a takeaway coffee chose to use a reusable cup this World Refill Day we could prevent the use of nearly 700,000 single-use cups,” added Jo.
“We urgently need to shift from our disposable, single-use culture to a more sustainable, circular future, with reuse & refill at the centre.
“The good news is, we already have the tools we need to change the world.”
For more information on World Refill Day in the town and how you can contribute, you can contact refillswindon@plasticfreeswindon.org or call 07588 443484.
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