Council supporting #Refillution Campaign to reduce plastic waste

Newry, Mourne and Down District Council is supporting and promoting Northern Ireland Water’s new #Refillution campaign, aimed at encouraging everyone to stop buying single use plastic and commit to refilling a reusable water bottle with our world-class drinking water.

Every year, Northern Ireland consumes 145 million single use plastic bottles. Our drinking water is 99% pure and we want everyone to benefit from it. By switching to a reusable bottle, people can help lower the levels of plastic waste reducing the impact on our environment. It is estimated that there are currently over 150m tonnes of plastic in the world’s oceans, and that some 100,000 sea mammals and one million birds die from eating or becoming tangled in plastic waste each year. 

Newry, Mourne and Down District Council Chairperson, Councillor Charlie Casey said“The Refillution campaign is an important step in helping to reduce single use plastics by eliminating the huge numbers of used and discarded plastic bottles.  We are encouraging local businesses to sign up to the Refillution campaign with the first one hundred businesses to sign up receiving 10 free reusable bottles each to give to staff to promote reuse of bottles and stay hydrated.” 

“The Council has established an Officer Working Group to phase out single use plastics targeting usage of items such as plastic forks, knives, plates and cups, drinks bottles, cleaning containers and plastic packaging across its sites.” 

Chairperson, Councillor Casey continued, “Other activities involve providing all Council staff with a reusable water bottle to encourage them to refill.  Supporting the NI Water #Refillution campaign is an important part of this work.”    

Businesses wanting to sign up to support the Refillution Campaign and receive 10 free reusable water bottles, should contact the Council’s Sustainability team by emailing  besustainable@nmandd.org. 

Get involved! Just hashtag #Jointherefillution #Refillution @niwnews @JoinRefillution and start sharing with your friends!

For more information about the campaign visit WWW.NIWATER.COM/REFILLUTION/