Council wants Southend to be a ‘refill destination’

June 15, 2023

Southend-on-Sea City Council is encouraging local businesses and residents to help the city become a ‘refill destination’ by providing greater access to drinking water as well as refill and reusable packaging to curb the growing plastic crisis.

This initiative comes ahead of World Refill Day on Friday 16 June, a Global Day of Action, run by the not-for-profit City to Sea, that prevents plastic pollution and helps people live with less waste. The campaign is designed to create an alternative vison of the future and accelerate the transition away from single-use plastic and towards refill and reuse systems.

Southend also features on the City to Sea refill app which connects people to places that provide free access to drinking water as well as places to eat, drink and shop with less waste.

The council’s Climate Change team will be at Southend Pier on 16 June between 10am and 2pm looking to sign up businesses and residents to the Refill scheme and will be giving away free reusable drinking bottles and other eco-friendly products.

Through ongoing engagement with local businesses and organisations, the council has already initiated the PlastiCity Pledge – encouraging these organisations to reduce waste and improve recycling performance. The council has also successfully demonstrated a proof-of-concept to increase plastic recycling rates among businesses and organisations across the city as part of the PlastiCity initiative.

Cllr Meg Davidson, deputy leader and cabinet member for environment, said: “Encouraging local businesses and residents to help our city become a refill destination is another big step towards Southend achieving its status as a net zero city but we need residents and businesses to join us on this ambitious journey. We want to set the gold standard for plastic recycling for others to follow."

Harriet Bosnell, CEO of City to Sea, added: “It’s great to have Southend-on-Sea City Council coming on board, supporting World Refill Day and aiming to become a refill destination. At the heart of this is an acceptance of the plastic crisis we face and an acknowledgement that we can’t just recycle more to solve this environmental disaster.”

City to Sea will work with the city of Southend over the coming years to measure their impact and to transparently report on the growing refill and reuse in the area supporting the council in engaging businesses and residents alike.

To find out all about climate change in Southend-on-Sea, what we are doing about it and how you can help, visit our Southend Climate Action website where you can also subscribe to the climate action newsletter.