In the UK 13 billion plastic water bottles are used each year, with the average person in the UK now using 190 plastic water bottles every year.

Plastic bottles make up one third of all ocean plastic.

In the last 15 years the consumption of bottled water has doubled.

It doesn't have to be this way. We need to move away from a single use culture and towards a Refill and Reuse culture. In order to do this we need to provide people with safe, free drinking water in public places. This is particularly urgent in coastal areas, where single use plastics can so easily enter the marine environment. 

According to research by Keep Britain Tidy and BRITA, 78% of people say they would like to see greater availability of free tap water in public spaces.

Water fountains were once a common sight in the UK, but are now sadly lacking from most public spaces. Encouraging people to carry and refill a reusable bottle, and making it easy for them to do so – such as by providing drinking water fountains - is one of the most effective ways to reduce plastic pollution at source. Every time someone refills instead of buying a bottle of water, it saves precious resources used to produce bottles and also CO2 emissions from transporting heavy bottles of water.

Water fountains also provide a healthier alternative to sugary drinks. On top of the container waste from bottles, sugary drinks have been singled out as a major contributor to excess sugar in our diets, a large and avoidable contributor to diet-related disease, and links with child obesity, early onset diabetes and
tooth decay. With public drinking fountains potentially providing both environmental and health wins, it seems common sense for local councils to install them.

We want to see Thanet District Council and Southern Water install a drinking fountain on Thanet's busiest tourist beach - Margate Main Sands. 

Please support this campaign and share it amongst your friends.

Thank you.