Town takes lead in fight against plastic pollution

WOKINGHAM brought the fight to save the planet from plastic on Thursday, June 16, celebrating World Refill Day.

After some downtime during the pandemic, the Wokingham Refill team has relaunched its efforts to cut down on the levels of plastic being used.

World Refill Day is part of a global scheme which seeks to tackle single-use plastics and promote reusable products which can then be refilled.

The team approached vendors and businesses during the day, encouraging them to join the scheme and help customers away from single-use plastics.

During the day, the team encouraged the Sultan Cafe to sign up to the scheme, also paying visits to Maya’s Refillables zero-waste shop, and the now-closed Blue Orchid.

Participating business offer free refills on water bottles, and reduce the use of plastic where possible.

Wokingham’s World Refill Day organiser, Rachel Bishop-Firth, said:”World Refill Day is part of a global campaign to prevent plastic pollution and help people live with less waste

“It would be great to see more people bringing refillable water bottles into to town this summer, to help cut down on litter and pollution.”

“We hope that businesses which take part also attract more customers,

“Instead of buying a bottle of water, we hope that people will use their money to treat themselves to something else from the café, and bring their own reusable bag to carry it home.”

With 300,000 participants across the world, the scheme has so far prevented more than 100 million pieces of plastic from polluting the environment.

Picture: Courtesy of Rachel Bishop-Firth FILL-UP: The scheme sees businesses offer water bottle refills for free, and encourages the adoption of refillable containers and recyclable materials over singleuse plastics.