As part of the Mayor of London’s plans to reduce single use plastic bottles businesses and shops across London are joining a scheme giving people free tap water refills.

Over 65 businesses, venues and shops including Costa Coffee, Tate Modern, BFI Imax and Leon have already joined the scheme and been added to the free refill app and website Refill.org.uk  that lists all the locations in London and more the 5,700 locations Nationwide

The Mayor wants to encourage Londoners to make small changes that have a big environmental impact. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “A free tap water scheme is long overdue in London and I welcome all of the retailers and business who have shown their strong commitment to reducing unnecessary plastic waste by joining the London Refill scheme.

The pilot refill scheme is run by Thames Water and City to Sea, a campaign group that aims to help stop ocean pollution, their volunteers will be approaching businesses to encourage them to join the scheme. City to Sea founder, Natalie Fee, said: “Refill puts the power to stop plastic pollution in people’s hands – it’s a fantastically easy way to reduce your plastic consumption and save money at the same time. Businesses can add themselves to the app too and help create the wave of change needed to keep plastic bottles out of the Thames!”

The Refill London scheme will take place in five areas: Greenwich town centre, Lewisham High Street, the Southbank and Bankside, Regent St, and London Bridge. If the scheme is a success the Mayor plans to help roll the scheme out throughout London this summer, following in the footsteps of Costa Coffee which has already rolled out the scheme to all their London locations.

On Average each Londoner buys 3 plastic bottles of water a week which is 175 bottles a year, each adding to the 7.7 billion plastic bottles brought in the UK every Year. Sadiq Khan Continued: “We all need to try harder to cut the excessive use of single-use plastic bottles, cups and cutlery that can end up pointlessly overflowing our landfill sites, finding their way into our oceans and harming our environment. I hope that even more businesses sign up to the scheme to help Londoners make small but significant steps, like refilling our bottles, to drive down plastic waste. City Hall is part of the scheme and I encourage everyone to download the free London Refill app to see which outlets are involved.”

As if thats not a big enough reason to go green and take up the opportunity to grab some free tap water instead the production of bottled water is around 500 times more carbon intensive than tap water which is subject to more stringent tests then its bottled counterparts. Thames Water chief executive, Steve Robertson, said: “Nurturing and protecting the environment is a core mission for Thames Water and we are proud of the quality of our tap water. By making it even more accessible we can together limit the use of millions of single-use plastic bottles which sadly end up in landfill or in our rivers and oceans.”

So be sure to look out for the refill stickers in the window letting people know they are offering free tap water and that there is no need to feel uncomfortable or embarrassed asking for it.