An easy solution to the mountain of completely avoidable single-use plastic waste

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‘In the UK we make our way through an estimated 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups a year, and over 7.7 billion plastic water bottles’ (Getty Images)

I am writing to encourage your readers to get involved in World Refill Day on Wednesday 16 June and take action to help tackle plastic pollution.

We have all had to get used to adapting to new ways of operating since the pandemic began. As lockdowns have lifted, we have sadly seen a massive increase in plastic pollution with take-away packaging a big part of the problem. In the UK we make our way through an estimated 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups a year, and over 7.7 billion plastic water bottles. These are littering our streets, our rivers and ending up in our oceans, harming marine life and polluting our beaches.

And there really is an easy solution to help stop this mountain of completely avoidable single-use plastic waste. If we choose to reuse, making it our daily habit to carry our reusable coffee cups and water bottles, we can individually have a major impact on plastic pollution. Reusables are perfectly safe to use when we are out and about and are being accepted by the UK’s major coffee chains and independent retailers.