National Refill Day 2019: 'Let's stop our throw-away culture and reduce our use of single-use plastic,' says Neil Parish MP

We must halt our 'throw-away' culture and reduce our use of single-use plastic, a leading MP has said.

Speaking at the National Refill Day, Water UK reception in Parliament today Neil Parish MP and Chairman of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee said that while he does not suspect the select committee to come down on a complete ban, there will be calls to dramatically reduce plastic use. He said: “You may need it for a water bottle but not if you have a reusable one, you may need it for vacuum packed food but carrots, potatoes, lots of vegetables that are wrapped in plastic do not need to be wrapped in plastic."

Parish also called on the Government to engage with the environmental impact of plastics, in the same way they are beginning to tackle climate change, but said he thinks “a complete war on plastic is not right” due to plastic’s ability to reduce food waste.

He argued for more reusable and compostable alternatives, but warned against committing to any one replacement to avoid a situation similar to diesel, which was previously marketed as a cleaner fuel and is now being criticised as a major contributor to toxic emissions.

In conjunction with National Refill Day, the Refill campaign also released statistics today which showed three quarters of Brits now think that using single-use plastic should be as socially unacceptable as littering, queue jumping and playing loud music on public transport.

The survey commissioned by the Refill campaign and conducted by OnePoll for National Refill Day also showed that more than 85 per cent of the public are worried about the impact of plastic pollution on the environment.

This is despite plastic water sales increasing by seven per cent last year, according to the market analyst Kantar.

Today high street chains Greggs, Pret and Sweaty Betty joined the Refill campaign to provide free drinking water to the public, taking the total number of stations to more than 20,000. Commuters at Canary Wharf will also be able to take part in an interactive ‘Hydration Station’ to ‘free the fish’ on a nearby billboard and raise awareness of the impact of plastic pollution on our oceans.

The campaign estimates they will have stopped over 100 million single-use bottles from becoming waste by the end of 2019.

Natalie Fee, founder of City to Sea, the organisation behind the Refill campaign, said: “It’s been incredible to watch the Refill campaign flourish over the past few years. National Refill Day is something that everyone can get on board with and has the potential to drastically reduce the amount of unnecessary single-use plastic we use when we’re out and about. People want to help prevent plastic pollution, and Refill puts the power to do that in their hands.”

Michael Roberts, Chief Executive of Water UK, added: “The water industry is committed to playing its part in reducing the plastic waste which clogs up our drains and blights our rivers and beaches. This country enjoys some of the best drinking water in the world, and we’ve made it easier than ever for people to make the pledge on National Refill Day to switch to a reusable bottle and fill up for free on the go.”