You don’t have to read that the world is choking in plastic bottles. You just have to walk along a city street or across a suburban beach. And yet, plastic bottles are still being made for brands.
Reusable product maker, Chilly’s, and environmental charity, City to Sea, have created a World Refill Day campaign with Uncommon to urge big water brands to ditch their plastic bottles and instead turn to reusables.
The campaign, which ran across the UK on June 16 aimed at the water brands Evian, Highland Spring and Fiji Water. It called for Dear Big Water to be responsible for its impact on the planet and offer reusable bottles.
The OOH campaign included vans depicting a Chilly’s reusable water bottle printed with one of the big water company’s logo, which circled near each company headquarters. There was also an open letter asking the companies to switch away from single-use plastics in billboards near these spots, while Chilly’s created demo reusable bottles. Billboards were also installed in East London (Shoreditch junction) for 24 hours with a message to water brands that Chilly’s is keen to collaborate with them to solve the problem their plastic bottles create.
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Lastly, a global coalition of over 400 international organisations has written an open letter demanding that the world’s five biggest plastic polluters (Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Unilever, Nestlé and Procter & Gamble) finally commit to “transparent, ambitious and accountable reuse and refill systems”.
Led by City to Sea and Break Free From Plastic, the letter has been signed by the awareness day’s headline sponsor, Chilly’s, and other household names such as The WI and the Muslim Council of Britain, plus a line-up of leading environmental NGOs including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and Break Free From Plastic. The letter is requesting polluters to bid goodbye to single-use plastics, and embrace reusable products such as Chilly’s water bottles, cups and pots.
Tim Bouscarle, co-founder of Chilly’s, stated, “This year, we wanted to go bigger than ever. It’s not enough just to encourage the general public to ditch single-use plastic and refill their water bottles – we need large-scale, household-name brands to step up and finally take responsibility for their role in plastic pollution.”
Natalie Fée, founder and chief executive officer of City to Sea, added, “As a global movement, we have the power to create a wave of change and show businesses, brands and governments that we need to see action on plastic and that refill and reuse holds the key to a world with less waste.”
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