Our first year and what a year -it's been amazing & super busy
Thanks to the hard work of our passionate group of mainly volunteers we've won an award, reached 1,200 sites, collaborated with tourism, health organisations, councils and zillions of businesses, reducing plastic pollution. And with your help we can make an even bigger impact -if you're passionate about the planet and want to take practical action - join our small team of volunteers, every bit of help makes a huge difference or make a donation as your Xmas gift to the oceans.🐳
We're helping to make tourism more sustainable in Aotearoa
Overseas research shows 64% of travellers buy more bottled water when away than at home and 70% don’t trust tap water in their destination. So we’re proud to have signed up to the NZ Tourism Sustainability commitment.
And we are working with tourism organisations to reduce plastic pollution and the environmental footprint of our overseas visitors, by promoting our tap water as 
great to drink and encouraging visitors to refill rather than buy more bottled drinks. We have been overwhelmed by the response from i-sites to hotels, tourist attractions and holiday parks.
Celebrating RefillNZ’s 1st birthday
It was an honor and a great way to celebrate RefillNZ’s 1st birthday by winning the Keep New Zealand Beautiful, Community Environmental Initiative Award. 🏆
The 
awards were held in Dunedin, so our Founder Jill Ford went down via Christchurch, signing up cafes along the way, in Ashburton, Timaru, Oamaru, Geraldine and Methven.
The awards night was inspiring, hearing about all the great initiatives around Aotearoa, keeping our country beautiful.
Plastic pollution in the Pacific
Tonga is remote and has beautiful beaches and coral, 
unfortunately, being remote and the middle of the pacific has resulted in heaps of plastic washed up on its beaches. Our Founder Jill was lucky to spend a week of free diving in Tonga, and saw loads of lovely coral, fish, sharks and even a turtle, plus an awful lot of plastic.
On one small uninhabited island, every 10 metres Jill stopped to pick up plastic, of which the most common were plastic bottles and tops along with fishing crates, jandals, and other broken plastic. Jill filled an old flour sack with washed-up plastic in less than 15 minutes, within 100 metres.
RefillNZ is a simple way you can go single-use plastic free and make a difference, so that by 2050 we will still have lots of happy marine life in the ocean.🐬🐠
Plastic and sugar an unhealthy alliance
Before 1975, soft drinks only came in glass bottles, and were returned, collected, sterilised and refilled. When plastic came along, it was much cheaper to produce, lighter and cheaper to transport, and could just be thrown away, so soft drinks got cheaper. Now, 25% of the average Kiwi’s sugar consumption comes from soft drinks and we’re eating 4-5x more each day than we need, with 75% of processed food containing sugar.
Sugar overload is causing a public health crisis with increased obesity and diabetes. Whilst plastic is making our planet very unhealthy.
Plastic and climate change- not only is plastic rubbish a problem, plastic production is a significant and growing contributor to carbon emissions.
Overall, the average energy cost to make the plastic, fill the bottle, transport it to market and then deal with the waste would be like filling up a quarter of every bottle with oil. By 2050 its predicted plastic production will produce the equivalent carbon emissions as 615 coal plants.
Walk the talk - get involved
We know that those of you who follow us are passionate about the environment and saving our planet from plastic pollution.
You can help make a bigger impact on plastic pollution by becoming a RefillNZ Campaigner, and get local businesses, such as cafes, on board as RefillNZ Stations. The more places people can refill on the go, the less need for bottled water in single use plastic. Join the #refillution - sign up here today.
Thanks for supporting the refillution. Feel free to email us with any ideas you have for topics that could be of interest for future e-news.
Jill and the team at RefillNZ
