One million plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute. Plastic bottles make up one third of all plastic pollution in the sea. Become a Refill Station to allow customers to fill water bottles for free.
If just 1 in 10 people in Britain refilled once a week, we would save around 340 million plastic bottles a year! You can offer free water refills to help your customers to live with less plastic, while showing them that you care about sustainability. By registering for free with the Refill app from City to Sea, you will be joining a global network of 300,000 Refill Stations and will show on the apps Refill map.
What are Refill stations?
Participating cafés, bars, restaurants, banks, galleries, museums, shops, hairdressers and other local businesses simply sign up to the app and put a sticker in their window, alerting passers-by that they’re welcome to come on in and get a refill.
44% of Refill app users spend between £2 – £5 when asking for a free water refill, and 7 out of 10 users view a business favourably if they offer free Refills. Refill is good for business, as well as the planet!
And it’s not just water, if you offer refills when customers bring their own coffee cup, lunchbox or refillable foodstuffs you can register too. It’s free to be listed on the app!
Once you have signed up, you can visit the Refill Stations Resources page to order Refill window stickers, and download posters, social media assets and guides.
Offer a water fountain
78% of people say they would like to see greater availability of free tap water in public spaces. You can support your local community by offering a water fountain with publicly accessible free water. Water fountains can be wrapped with your branding, improving brand awareness whilst showing your customers that you care about your local community. You can contact City to Sea’s preferred partner, Culligan for a free site visit. You can view their brochure online.
Selling cold drinks
If you sell cold drinks then avoid plastic bottles and stock aluminium cans, glass, or cartons instead. These are easily recycled in standard recycling collections and have a lower carbon footprint than plastic.
Help cut the cups!
Manchester is a Refill destination, meaning that we need to actively promote refill as the best option for takeaway drinks across the city. If you sell hot drinks, then you can help to play your part.
We strongly encourage all hot drink vendors to offer a discount to customers who bring their own cup. Even better, you could charge extra to use a disposable cup! Research has shown that introducing an additional charge on disposables is even more effective in encouraging customers to refill! A recent City to Sea pilot saw sales in reusable cups increase from 3% to 50% when they applied a charge for a disposable, rather than a discount for a reusable!
In early 2025 we will be hosting a live session to share the results of a new returnable cup scheme piloting here in the city. If you’d like more information about this eventplease add your contact details and we will contact you when the event is finalised.
Encourage your staff to go plastic free
Promote the Refill app
Download the Refill app and encourage your staff and customers to do the same, to find all the places offering refill in your local area – refill.org.uk
Direct your staff to the Plastic-Free Living website for everyday tips to reduce plastic use, check out In Our Nature’s top five tips to go plastic-free and have a look at the Plastic Free July campaign.