People can now refill their water bottle for free at a whole host of Canterbury City Council venues.

Those with a thirst can visit The Marlowe, The Beaney, Whitefriars, the King’s Hall, the Whitstable Harbour office and community centres for some H2O. They have signed up to an innovative scheme aimed at helping people reduce their reliance on single-use or disposable plastic bottles by allowing people to fill their water bottle for free.

Chairman of Canterbury City Council’s Community Committee, Cllr Neil Baker, said: “We were inspired by the Refill campaign’s simple but clever idea and wanted to be among the first organisations in Kent to sign up our venues.

“The beauty of allowing people to refill their bottles is that we instantly reduce the amount of plastic people need to dispose of. You also reduce the need for recycling which can be really complicated when it comes to plastic, and fewer plastic bottles will inevitably lead to less litter.

“On top of all that, this is another way of encouraging people to visit some of the public buildings we’re most proud of.”

Being part of the Refill scheme means an organisation signs up to be featured on an app that shows people where they can refill.

Refill’s Gus Hoyt said: “Two-thirds of people are too shy to ask to fill their bottle so Refill is about breaking down this barrier by welcoming people in. The Marlowe was the first business in Canterbury to sign up.

“Single-use plastic bottles are expensive to produce, use up valuable natural resources to make and transport and create mountains and mountains of waste once we’ve gulped down the contents.

“Recycling’s not the answer either. Here in the UK, an estimated 800 plastic bottles a minute are either ending up in landfill or as litter which will too often make its way into our waterways and out to sea.

“By buying a reusable water bottle you will also save yourself a small fortune and they often pay for themselves within a week going on to save you money with every free Refill from then on!”

Businesses throughout the district can get involved in the Refill scheme by signing themselves up to the app. Refill is a plastics reduction campaign run by City to Sea.

 

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