THE South East is said to be getting ‘tap happy’ and switching to reusable water bottles as concerns about plastic pollution increase.

Ahead of National Refill Day last Thursday, a survey revealed that 85 per cent of people in the South East are worried about the impact of plastic pollution.

The survey, by One Poll commissioned by City to Sea, also indicates that people are taking action, with 71 per cent now using a reusable water bottle outside the home in an effort to ditch single-use plastics.

In the UK, 7.7 billion plastic water bottles are used each year, with the average person in the UK now using 150 plastic water bottles every year – that’s more than three a week.

Many are discarded and end up polluting our rivers and seas. Staggeringly, if just one-in-10 Brits refilled just once a week, we’d save around 340 million plastic bottles per year.

Refill, City to Sea’s award-winning campaign to get people ditching single-use water bottles in favour of reusable bottle, is the UK’s leading ‘app for tap’ – connecting people looking for water with businesses, water fountains and transport hubs where they can refill for free on the go.

South East Water is backing the Refill campaign and has included a pledge in its latest business plan to continue to support the refill efforts as one of its 10 responsible business commitments.

Emma Goddard, head of environment at South East Water, said: “We’ve been speaking to thousands of customers as we developed our business plan and concerns about plastic pollution of our water sources is high on people’s agenda. The tap water we supply is among the best in the world, so we are proud to support this growing movement that will make a huge difference for our environment in the short and long-term.”

City to Sea and Water UK, the trade body for companies supplying our tap water, together with South East Water, joined forces in January this year to grow the campaign from a grassroots scheme to a national movement.

Water UK’s funding has created an ambitious drive to help fight plastic waste. As part of the partnership, every water company in England aims to ensure people can refill their water bottles in every major town and city across the UK by 2021.

The partnership could save a billion bottles by 2025 with Refill stations on every high street across the UK. The weight of plastic saved by removing one billion plastic bottles is equal to 12,700 metric tonnes, or just under 13 million kilograms.

Refill groups have been setting up in towns across the South East, most recently with launches this summer in Seaford, Faversham and Whitstable.

The campaign works by connecting people who are looking for water with thousands of local business, transport hubs and public spaces using a free app.

Participating cafes, bars, restaurants, banks, galleries, museums and other businesses simply sign up to the app and put a sticker in their window – alerting passers-by that they’re welcome to come on in and fill up their bottle, even without a purchase.

The app has recently been redeveloped to include a handy bottle reminder – good news for the 35 per cent of people surveyed who said the main reason they bought plastic bottles was because they forgot their reusable bottle.

Natalie Fee, founder and chief executive of City to Sea, said: “It’s been incredible to watch the campaign flourish over the past two years. We wanted to do something that everyone could get onboard with, that would drastically reduce the amount of pointless plastic we use when we’re out and about. People want to help stop plastic pollution, and Refill puts the power to do just that in peoples’ hands.”

Michael Roberts, chief executive of Water UK, said: “As an industry with a strong focus on the environment we are passionate about tackling the problems caused by plastic bottles, which clog up rivers and drains, and pollute our seas.

“On National Refill Day, people helped turn this harmful tide of plastic waste by downloading the app and switching to a re-suable bottle. This country has some of the best drinking water in the world and we want everyone to benefit from it. This scheme will do that by making it easier for people to refill their bottles for free wherever they work, rest, shop or play.”

The Refill campaign has money-saving benefits for customers too. A half-litre bottle of still water typically costs from around 30p in supermarkets to anything up to £2 in motorway service stations, compared to a twelfth of a penny for the equivalent volume of tap water.