News

Midlands water and waste company Severn Trent is set to launch a Refill Scheme in Nottingham which will see local people able to fill up reusable water bottles for free.

The company has teamed up with founding organisation City to Sea to rollout the scheme into more towns and cities – with Nottingham the next to benefit.

The initiative, backed by Nottingham City Council, will allow people to fill up reusable water bottles for free at member businesses, such as pubs, restaurants and cafes. 

An action day will take place in Nottingham on 31st October with volunteers in and around the city centre speaking to businesses and signing them up.

Severn Trent’s corporate responsibility lead Jess Fidler said: “This campaign will not only make it much, much easier for everyone to have access to our wonderful water it’ll also cut down on the amount of plastic that end up in our rivers, canals and landfill sites. It’s estimated that the nationwide Refill Scheme will cut plastic bottle use by tens of millions each year.

“That’s why we’re out in Nottingham city centre, with volunteers aiming to sign up as many local businesses as possible. We want independent retailers to be part of it, together with big chains, to give everyone the opportunity to take advantage of the free service.”

Also supporting the action day is Nottingham City Council’s Energy Services, and Liam McClelland from Nottingham’s Green Party. Both have already played key roles in promoting the environmental issues single use plastic bottles can cause.

Around 7.7 billion plastic bottles are bought across the UK each year, resulting in substantial amounts of single-use plastic waste. The average UK household uses 480 plastic bottles a year, but only recycles 270 of them.

The Refill app can be downloaded for free on Google Play or the App Store. 

Anyone wanting to get in touch, find out more about Refill, or those looking to sign up or become an ambassador for their local area, can email refill@severntrent.co.uk.