From refill.org.uk, Feb 2020
One million plastic bottles are purchased around the world every minute, and that figure is expected to go up in 2021 by 20%.
So, what can we do in this regard? Refill offers a free and easy solution to prevent plastic pollution from bottles at source from single-use. If only 1 in 10, refilled once a week in Britain alone, we would save around 340 million bottles of plastic a year.
The good news is that studies has shown that 73% of us are worried with plastic pollution and 64% of people polled said that if they could get refills, they would stop buying single-use bottles.
Prevent Plastic Pollution At Source.
If everyone in the UK replenished just once a week, every year we would avoid more than 340 million plastic bottles at source.
Save Money
Globally, by 2025, the bottled water industry is expected to be worth $215.12 billion, and we spend more than $2.4 billion a year on the stuff in the UK. That is no surprise if you consider that every year we buy about 3 bottles a week EACH.
Help Combat Climate Change
It is estimated that plastic production and plastic waste incineration generate around 400 million tonnes of CO2 per year worldwide.
The processing of a single bottle takes over 8 litres of water, making it an incredibly inefficient use of resources, and that's even before we’ve thought about flying it halfway around the world!
Add in the fact that British landfilling and incineration of plastic bottles generate about 233,000 tonnes of CO2 pollution a year and you have a climate disaster!
Protect The Environment
In the UK every single day an additional 700,000 plastic bottles are just thrown away. Many of these fall into our seas. Plastic bottles now account for one-third of all plastic pollution at sea and there are now more than 159 plastic bottles in the UK for every mile of beach.
The effect on our environment is becoming devastating – plastic pollution destroys 100,000 marine mammals and turtles and 1 million seabirds each year.
REFERENCE
Refill. (2020). Why Refill | Refill | 5 top reasons to join the Refill Revolution.. [online] Available at: https://refill.org.uk/about/why-refill/ [Accessed 3 Feb. 2020].