For those of you who don’t know, we've had Refill up and running in Leek for a few years now. We have around twenty businesses signed up.
Packaging, especially from takeaways, whatever it is made of, is a huge problem as we all know.
So, Refill encourages people to get refills of water, hot drinks, food etc. using their own bottles, cups and containers rather than new ones, thereby reducing packaging, especially plastic.
Businesses can sign up to Refill at no cost to themselves. They put a sticker or poster in their window letting people know they are happy to provide refills. This is important, not just to show they are signed up, but also because people are often reluctant to ask for refills, especially water, without feeling they have to buy something, so posters let them know they are welcome. Moreover, businesses often find they do get extra footfall due to being signed up and these people often do spend money with them. It also means businesses spend less on providing packaging. So, it’s win, win!
When we sign up a business, we add them to the free Refill App, which can be found on the Apple App Store or Google Play.
We add a short description and picture of the business, what kind of refills they offer and their location. The app covers businesses worldwide, so you can sign up to the app yourself and, wherever you are in the world, if you need to fill your water bottle or fancy a coffee, you can find places near you. There are over 330,000 Refill stations worldwide and, so far, Refill has helped save over 100,000,00 plastic bottles from being used.
MCA are having a stall at the Family Fun Day at Tittesworth on 22nd of August and will be promoting Refill there, so it would be great to see you and have a chat.
Please consider using Refill for when you are out and about.
Also, if you know of a business in Leek and the surrounding villages that would like to sign up to Refill and help reduce unnecessary packaging, please let us know and we will talk to them.
You can find out more at www.refill.org.uk
Sally Perry