Free tap water with Refill London

Have you heard of Refill London? The scheme will help you locate places to refill your bottle with free tap water.

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To help reduce the amount of single-use plastic bottles and make drinking water more accessible in public spaces, the Mayor has launched a scheme to help Londoners locate places to refill their bottles with free tap water. 

The discussion ran from 15 March 2018 - 09 May 2018

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Comments (271)

Avatar for - Adelie penguin

This is an essential scheme and should be rolled out everywhere as soon as possible. I remember wanting some water near Buckingham Palace and refusing to pay the £2.50 they wanted for a bottle!

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This is an essential scheme and should be rolled out everywhere as soon as possible. I remember wanting some water near Buckingham Palace and refusing to pay the £2.50 they wanted for a bottle!

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Great idea, but simpler if coffee shops are required to have a simple water tap that the public can access easily, rather than asking the staff. Water pipes run throughout London, so having a simple tap in bus stops or outside tube stops...

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Great idea, but simpler if coffee shops are required to have a simple water tap that the public can access easily, rather than asking the staff. Water pipes run throughout London, so having a simple tap in bus stops or outside tube stops would make it easily accessible.

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Why need an app to get a water refill beats me!

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Hi Rotherhitenotspot

Refill have told us that they’re currently in the process of removing the need to create an account to view Refill Stations. You’ll still be able to log in if you want to earn rewards. More here: https://www.refill.org.uk/get-the-refill-app/

Talk London

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What a brilliant idea. The best for sometime.

I have reduced my plastic bottle usage and this can only help

Well Mr Mayor

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Excellent idea which should be rolled out across London ASAP.

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That's excellent because good hydration is important. It's just as important to make free toilets more widely available, because people avoid drinking water if they run the risk of not finding a toilet when it's needed. Many public...

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That's excellent because good hydration is important. It's just as important to make free toilets more widely available, because people avoid drinking water if they run the risk of not finding a toilet when it's needed. Many public conveniences are now closed down or locked up because of the risk of vandalism or lack of budget. We have just completed the Capital Ring walk and had to plan very carefully and do a lot of research to find anywhere to 'spend a penny'.

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Great initiative!! Let's aim for zero non-recyclable plastics in the next few years with the aim of making all single-use items compostable, or completely avoidable!

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Of course we should have this scheme London-wide and in as many places as possible. I have been carrying my own refillable bottle for years and it would be great to have more places to refill it. Parks used to have fountains when I was a...

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Of course we should have this scheme London-wide and in as many places as possible. I have been carrying my own refillable bottle for years and it would be great to have more places to refill it. Parks used to have fountains when I was a child - can we bring those back into use too?

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I think that promoting the use of tap water of a good quality is a good idea. However many cities are battling with water shortages and the UK has had issues in the past with droughts. In making water available, we need to do it in a way...

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I think that promoting the use of tap water of a good quality is a good idea. However many cities are battling with water shortages and the UK has had issues in the past with droughts. In making water available, we need to do it in a way that makes people value water as with other natural resources and not squander it, filling bottles they do not need, leaving taps running, using drinking water for tasks that waste water could be used for. The other thing we should do is promote reusable glass or other containers in place of plastic bottles which create a waste problem, create litter and also have health concerns as reports show plastic particles are transmitted to the water. Maybe a strengthened glass coated with an anti biotic treatment could be used for semi permanent water bottles or even certain types of metal as are used in some cycle races.

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In my youth, many years ago, there were water fountains or drinking points in many spots around london. Can’t remember why they were abandoned perhaps to do with transmission of disease?? Time to revive these points to start.

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In my youth, many years ago, there were water fountains or drinking points in many spots around london. Can’t remember why they were abandoned perhaps to do with transmission of disease?? Time to revive these points to start.

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Excellent, the more places the better and the perfect solution to stop people buying water in plastic bottles.
I remember in my youth there were drinking fountains in public places such as town centres, parks, seaside resorts and...

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Excellent, the more places the better and the perfect solution to stop people buying water in plastic bottles.
I remember in my youth there were drinking fountains in public places such as town centres, parks, seaside resorts and playgrounds.
Local authorities should food the bill to supply the public water fountains and the water boards make such huge profits from their customers that they should be forced to supply the water free of charge, about time the put something back into the communities.
It could also be incorporated that new business also provide a water fountain in their properties especially the larger companies and chains.

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very good idea,good to see it being rolled out.hopefully it will cut down on the number of plastic bottles being used.which in turn will be a good side effect.lets go green London.

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very good idea,good to see it being rolled out.hopefully it will cut down on the number of plastic bottles being used.which in turn will be a good side effect.lets go green London.

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Avatar for - Adelie penguin

Yes, a good idea. However, water in does lead to water out, and it is more important to me that all of these water holes also allow the public to have enthusiastic access to well maintained and clean toilet facilities. Indeed, local...

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Yes, a good idea. However, water in does lead to water out, and it is more important to me that all of these water holes also allow the public to have enthusiastic access to well maintained and clean toilet facilities. Indeed, local councils should be encouraging this rather than the more common occurrence of closing down or time limiting facilities that already exist.

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Avatar for - Saola

Great idea. I have used a refill point at Gatwick airport but it wasn't easy to find. Need to ensure that where businesses are required to provide free drinking water they prominently signpost where it is.

Avatar for - Staghorn coral

You have all my support. Go for it! and hopefully other city will follow..

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This is such an excellent idea - hope it gets great support and can spread to other areas.

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This is such an excellent idea - hope it gets great support and can spread to other areas.

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All of that water has got to go somewhere, so how about aligning this scheme with the introduction of free public toilet facilities?

There must be millions of people fed up with having to sneak into a Macdonalds or some similar...

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All of that water has got to go somewhere, so how about aligning this scheme with the introduction of free public toilet facilities?

There must be millions of people fed up with having to sneak into a Macdonalds or some similar establishment in order to use their "facilities" whenever they are caught short.

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So many cafes and restaurants have free water now. The word is going around. Councils need to do their bit too, and this is a first of many baby steps which need to be taken. Plastic water bottles are the tip of the problem, but a good...

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So many cafes and restaurants have free water now. The word is going around. Councils need to do their bit too, and this is a first of many baby steps which need to be taken. Plastic water bottles are the tip of the problem, but a good place to start.

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Avatar for - Saola

I agree that this is a good idea, but suggest that free water fountains should, over time, be provided in all public toilet facilities, whether free (as at many rail stations) or paid-for..

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Getting water in London is ridiculous. It is all about money money money. Often, the ONLY solution is to buy water; this is especially true and pernicious for tourists.

If you walk around most European cities, there are free fountains....

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Getting water in London is ridiculous. It is all about money money money. Often, the ONLY solution is to buy water; this is especially true and pernicious for tourists.

If you walk around most European cities, there are free fountains. If you go to a tourist city like Rome, they are on most corners.

If you go to any American airport there are frequent drinking water fountains. I cannot recall ANY free drinking water in ANY of the London airports I use. They just want to sell you water - instant plastic waste. The cop-out that you can ask any of the food outlets at the airport is just pathetic. People have pride, they do not want to beg for favours.

London should be proactive on water, not mercenary. It takes enough from people already.

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Thanks everyone for sharing your views. It's great to read so many positive reactions.

Some of you have raised concerns around hygiene. We got in touch with Refill app for feedback.

As most Refill points are already catering businesses, they have passed health and safety checks.

Other guidelines for Refill points include:
- ask customer to take lid off their bottle
- don't touch the opening of the bottle with your hands or touch the bottle to the tap ('leaving an air gap' is the technical term).

Refill points can also refuse any refill if the bottle looks grubby!

Can you think of any other barriers to using the Refill points or the app?

Talk London