Single-use plastic bottles
The Mayor of London is working to improve access to free drinking water, helping to reduce the number of single-use plastic bottles in the capital.
The average London adult buys more than three plastic water bottles every week - a startling 175 bottles every year per person. In total, some 7.7 billion plastic bottles are bought across the UK each year, resulting in substantial amounts of single-use plastic waste.
The Mayor is keen for Londoners to adopt small changes that can have a big environmental impact - like refilling reusable bottles with tap water, instead of needlessly buying new single-use ones. To support this, the Mayor is improving access to drinking water in public places and in London’s many restaurants, cafes and businesses, making it easier for Londoners and visitors to the capital to refill on the go.
These projects and others will help with the Mayor’s ambition for London to send no biodegradable or recyclable waste to landfill by 2026 and put London back on track to recycling 65 per cent of its waste by 2030.
Drinking water fountains
The Mayor has partnered with Thames Water to provide a new £5 million fund to boost the number of drinking water fountains across London. The fountains will be installed from summer 2019 and will be located in busy and accessible London locations. We have invited London boroughs and public and private land owners to apply to host drinking water fountains.
London Drinking Fountain Fund
The Mayor, #OneLess, and MIW Water Cooler Experts have installed a network of 28 drinking fountains and bottle refill stations across London. Installing these initial fountains will give us useful information which will influence the wider roll out of drinking fountains across London.
Refill London
Refill London encourages shops, businesses and cafes to offer members of the public free tap water refills.
Participating businesses display ‘refill’ stickers in their windows to let people know they offer free tap water and that there is no need to feel uncomfortable or embarrassed asking for it. They also appear on the Refill app, making the nearest Refill point easy to locate.
How you can help
- If you’re a business, venue, public building, borough or any organisation that can offer free water refills.
- If you would like to get involved through volunteering to help Refill London grow we have a guidance documents and information about setting up your own local scheme or just being a local champion.
Send Refill London an email to [email protected]