Being a seaside town, Refill Hastings is very conscious of the issue of single use plastic. It washes up on our beaches on a daily basis.
In the past Hastings has had a reputation for being a down and out seaside town but it is now experiencing a bit of a resurgence. It is a very creative and somewhat eccentric place and also has a very socially and environmentally aware and active community.
The Refill scheme was initiated by Transition Town Hastings and the local Green Party along with support from Surfers Against Sewage. These local groups (as well as the Marine Conservation Society) carry out beach and street cleans and often collect a lot of plastic waste.
We’re a small group of volunteers and, so far, we have signed up over 50 venues in the local area to be Refill Stations.
We launched the scheme at the Ocean Symposium at St Mary in the Castle in September 2018.
Julia Hilton of Hastings Green party said:
“The UK currently uses 13 billion plastic bottles every year, but only 7.5 billion of these are recycled with the remaining 5.5 billion either landfilled, littered, or incinerated but we are also lucky enough to have some of the best quality tap water in the world — and with the Refill app it’s easier and cheaper to carry a bottle and refill it than to constantly buy new bottles. We can help make carrying a bottle the norm and make sure people know how easy it is to find their refill.”
Visit our facebook page or join the facebook group to get involved.
