We’d love to keep sharing our exciting developments in the Global Good community with you, but you’ll need to ‘opt-in’ to our communications. Read more about how we protect your data here >>
Where Are They Now? City To Sea’s Global Refill Revolution
Over the years the Global Good Awards have celebrated hundreds of organisations for the actions they take for the environment, the community and business.
Throughout the year, we have been looking back at some of our previous winners to share news of their growth and ongoing success.
This week we are featuring City to Sea who won the Best Environmental Behavioural Change Award in 2018 for their Refill campaign and app.
Refill’s vision is a world where everyone can choose to reuse wherever they eat, drink and shop so they launched the world’s first dedicated refill app. At the touch of a button, consumers can connect with a network of locations to reuse and refill, helping them reduce plastic when shopping.
‘Life With Less Plastic, Made Easy’
The app is free and available for anyone to download. Businesses wishing to participate in the scheme simply sign up to the app and put a sticker in their window inviting passers-by to come in and get a refill.
When City To Sea won the Global Good Award, the Refill campaign had started working with one water company and focussed solely on drinking water. This number continued to grow once the app expanded to include refillable hot drinks, lunch/takeaway food, groceries, toiletries, and zero waste and plastic-free shopping options.
Back in 2018, the campaign employed four staff globally and relied on 100 volunteers to look after 15 schemes in the UK with over 200 refill stations. Refill Wales (Cymru) was also launched with the help of the Welsh government who had sights on becoming the first ‘Refill Nation’ in the UK.
In 2019, the Refill campaign went global and now has schemes in eight countries across Europe, Latin America, the UAE and Japan. In addition to the 400 schemes and 32,000 Refill Stations in the UK, there are now 300,000 Refill Stations (including public water fountains) around the world making refills available for coffee and food containers as well as water. Before expanding in 2020, the Refill campaign had already saved over 100 million pieces of plastic at source.
Refill’s partners have also increased. Now, the Refill Revolution is powered by several partners including Chilly’s, MIW Water Cooler Experts, the Welsh Government, Ecover, Aqua Libra Co and Northumbrian Water.
Engaging the Globe
Last year, City To Sea launched the first World Refill Day on 16th June, reaching over 100 million people globally with the purpose of getting reusables back on the agenda following the pandemic. Only a year on, it is already a huge global movement followed by millions worldwide with over 90 countries taking action for World Refill Day with #WorldRefillDay trending in the top 3 hashtags all day. In June alone, the numbers using the app doubled to 30,000 users across 117 countries. Over 400 companies signed an open letter to the world’s largest plastic polluters calling on them to reduce single-use plastic. This year’s campaign generated over 400 pieces of media coverage which reached an estimated 1 billion people worldwide! Refill is now on course to reach half a million app downloads.
City to Sea has shown that providing simple solutions to one of our most pressing environmental issues can change behaviour through empowering consumers, communities and businesses to take action. Learn more about the scale and incredible success of this campaign from City to Sea’s World Refill Day 2022 impact report.
