Rise of the Reusables

Many of us have been in a similar situation, you’re out for a meal or just in the town doing the weekly shop and you need a drink. So, you buy a water and finish your drink but then you’re left with the empty and usually plastic single use bottle. Today, our minds think about how this bottle will be recycled or do we reuse it ourselves?

My daughter often asks for tap water when we are out, from this desire to reduce plastic waste, but I always feel embarrassed as I feel that it is cheeky asking for ‘free stuff’ when you are in a café or restaurant, rather than paying for drinks. Often, in my case, that drink will be water…….

Here at Searivers, we have joined the Refill Revolution and have become one of over 26,000 refill stations around the UK where you can refill a drink bottle when you are out and about. The Refill app shows you where the nearest station is, making it easier for you to refill your water bottle without needing to purchase single-use bottles or, as in my case, be embarrassed about asking! 

The Welsh Government is committed to making Wales the world’s first ‘Refill Nation.’  To help make this ambition a reality they are working with City to Sea on rolling out Refill across Wales, initially focusing on introducing more Refill Stations providing free drinking water along Wales’ 870-mile Coast Path, making us perfectly placed here in Ynyslas.

Why is all this important?

Single use packaging, whether that’s plastic, polystyrene or even cardboard, can just keep draining the resources to make them to only be used once.

The statistics are quite frightening. Of the 13 billion plastic bottles used in the UK each year, 7.7 billion, or nearly 60% are plastic water bottles with 700,000 littered every single day in the UK and, many of these are making their way into our oceans making up one-third of all plastic pollution in the sea. The impact on our wildlife is becoming catastrophic – 100,000 marine mammals and turtles and 1 million seabirds are killed by plastic pollution annually.

If just 1 in 10 Brits refilled once a week, we’d save around 340 million plastic bottles a year.

So, what can we do to reduce our single use waste?

Let’s get real, in our modern world, it’s unlikely that we will become completely plastic free any time soon. Plastic is an amazing material and is wonderfully useful.  The aim should be not to hate plastic but to hate single use plastic. The best we can do is try to live a more sustainable life and that includes reducing waste as much as possible. If everyone does a little, the difference would be amazing, such as…

1. Use Refill Points

Many towns and cities now have Refill Points. Here in Aberystwyth, they take the #RefillRevolution to the next level. Not only can you refill your drinks bottle, but you can refill everything from vegan shampoo to hand soap, and you pay per pump. Take a reusable container and buy as much, or as little, as you need. For those locals amongst us, Aberystwyth has a Refill Point which can be found outside the market hall near to the castle.

2. Using a Reusable Cup for Coffee

Carry a reusable coffee cup or flask. Many high street coffee chains already let you bring your own reusable cup for their hot and cold drinks and, often offer a small discount for doing so. How easy is that! It is hard to see me without a coffee or tea in my hand, so I like to put one in my car as a spare for the inevitable time I forget to bring the home one out with me.

3. Use your own reusable bag

I have a bag of bags in the boot of my car, and a spare in my bag, just in case I forget to pick one out of my car. Not only the bag for all your shopping, but a small reusable produce bag you can put loose fruit and veg into as a lot of fresh fruit and veg have unnecessary packaging these days. Morrison’s have acted on this, with not only having loose fruit and veg but also reusable paper bags instead.

4. Ditch the cling film!

Keeping leftovers or your lunch fresh can still be done using a container or kitchen foil that can be recycled via a recycling bin. This means that your food doesn’t leak out or go to waste whilst it is stored. You can use the new Beeswax Wraps, that are natural and environmentally friendly.

5. Say no to single use cutlery and straws

It is thought that we use this cutlery for roughly 5 minutes before throwing it away, where it will usually end up sat in landfill or find its way into the waterways and eventually seas. If you were to carry a spork, or use reusable cutlery, you personally could save 466 items a year being thrown away.

The good news is that research has shown that 73% of us are concerned about plastic pollution and 64 per cent of people surveyed said they would stop buying it if they could access tap water refills. And of course, refilling your reusable bottle is an easy way to save money too!

Check out www.refill.org.uk for more information.