The winner of the Best Pub Employer (up to 500 employees) category at the 2019 Publican Awards has revealed that it has registered each of its 10 sites as refill stations – meaning that people can replenish their water bottles for free over the bar instead of buying a new one.
According to Refill’s campaign website, the average person in the UK will use 150 plastic water bottles each year. It claims that if one in 10 Brits refilled once a week, there would be 340m fewer plastic bottles in circulation per year.
As part of its latest partnership, each of the Inn Collection Group’s venues across the north-east will appear on Refill’s app.
This news follows the announcement of a deposit return scheme for Scotland that will see a 20p deposit added to the price of single-use drinks containers, which customers could reclaim by returning the empty can or bottle, in a bid to reduce waste.
Cause close to our hearts
The Inn Collection Group operations manager Paul Brown explained: “The plastic crisis is a global issue, but we can all take matters into our own hands to make a difference in our own communities to tackle plastic pollution.
“Each of our inns are located on or close to the coast and waterways, so this is a cause close to our hearts.
“As well as tackling the issue of single-use plastic by making it easier for people on the go to reuse and refill their bottles instead of buying new ones, we’re fortunate to have very high-quality drinking water on tap for people to enjoy.
“We’re delighted to be partnering Refill in such a worthwhile initiative and giving people even more reasons to visit an Inn Collection Group pub.”
Giving people confidence
In addition, Iain Robson, a natural environment officer with the Northumberland Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, added: “It’s great to see companies like the Inn Collection Group having the bottle to do something locally that really will make a difference when it comes to reducing plastic pollution.
“Refill offers a free and easy solution for preventing plastic pollution from single-use bottles at source. If just one in 10 people refilled once a week, we’d save around 340m plastic bottles a year.
“We want more businesses like the Inn Collection Group to put their tap on the map and sign up to the Refill scheme to help reduce the amount of plastic bottles ending up on beaches and in the sea.
“Refill is an award-winning campaign that aims to prevent millions of plastic bottles ending up in the environment by making it easier to fill up a reusable bottle with tap water.
“This scheme gives people confidence that they won’t be turned away from somewhere or cause upset when they ask for their bottles to be refilled. It has become a social norm to drink bottled water when we’re ‘on the go’ even though we have some of the safest tap water in the world.”
