We need more public drinking fountains to help fight plastic pollution, obesity and dental decay.
Currently there is only one drinking fountain for every 3,367 people and as few as one fountain for every 17,000 people in the worst-affected area and .
So its easier to find somewhere to buy bottled drinks than to find a drinking fountain, and sugary soft drinks are often the cheapest option.
The plastic is killing our wildlife and the sugar in soft drinks is killing us.
We are petitioning for government to legislate for councils to have drinking fountains in 50% of parks, sports fields and playgrounds. Your support is needed so we can present this to the new government.
Please sign now.
Single use plastic bottles and lids are in the top 5 most commonly found rubbish on beaches throughout the world
Toroa (Southern Royal Albatross) are dying from plastic pollution, like the one that died recently in Napier because its stomach was full of a plastic bottle. It died slowly- starving as no other food could get through.
And it’s not just the Albatross- plastic pollution kills 2 marine animals every minute, and 90% of fish tested in the Pacific contain plastic which we eat.
Sign for more drinking fountains to stop the tide of plastic
Sugary bottled beverages are also killing us and causing dental decay in children as young as 18 months.
“One of the worst days in my dental career was when I had to remove 10 teeth in one surgical procedure from an 18 month-old baby, still in nappies,” says Dr Beaglehole
In 2019 – 8700 children in NZ had to be hospitalised due to dental decay- and the main reason was sugary drinks .
Obesity is a recognised risk factor for severe clinical outcomes of COVID-19 and NZ has the third highest adult obesity rate in the OECD and one in 10 children are obese.
Kiwis, on average, consume the equivalent to 37 teaspoons of sugar a person every day, that’s 5-6 x the recommended sugar intake and soft drinks contribute on average a quarter of the sugar intake.
Its urgent – soft drinks are killing us
With Covid 19 in the community, our high rates of obesity and skyrocketing plastic pollution, the situation is now so urgent that RefillNZ are petitioning the government to legislate for councils to have drinking fountains in 50% of Parks, sports fields and playgrounds.
Please sign now for healthier communities.
Back ground facts
- Good access to water in outdoor public places is an important health and environmental issue.
- Yet currently, it’s often so hard to find a public drinking fountain that it’s easier to find somewhere to buy bottled drinks.
- As few as 1-in-10 parks and 1-in-5 children’s playgrounds in NZ have water fountains.
- With an average of just one drinking fountain for every 3,303 people and as few as one fountain for every 17,000 people in the worst-affected areas.
- To rehydrate people then resort to buying bottled water or soft drinks, in single-use plastic, and often high in sugar.
- Approx’ 838M bottles are thrown away each year in NZ, that litter our beaches and waterways, kill our bird life, and get in the fish we eat.
- Kiwis consume up to six times the recommended daily sugar intake, with 25 per cent coming from sugary drinks.
- Whilst the sugar is contributing to obesity, and killer diseases such as Diabetes type 2 and now Covid 19.
SIGN NOW as a new Crown entity to regulate water Taumata Arowai is in its final reading. This has a range of objectives and functions, including protecting and promoting public health outcomes. Greater provision of public water fountains will help with better public health outcomes.
