Celebrating Success: Culligan x Refill

As we embark on 2024, we’re reflecting on and celebrating the collaboration between Culligan and Refill – the award-winning behaviour-change campaign helping people live with less waste. Working together, we’re supporting the transition away from single-use towards reuse systems and tackling the global issue of plastic pollution by reducing waste.

Refill works by connecting people to places they can eat, drink and shop with less waste, through the free Refill app which allows you to tap into a global network of places to reduce, reuse and refill. From a coffee on your commute, to drinking water on-the-go, or even shopping with less plastic, Refill puts the power to go packaging free at your fingertips. The Refill campaign is run by City to Sea, an environmental charity campaigning to stop plastic pollution at source.

From Tiny Ripples, Might Waves Flow

As the Refill campaign was growing, City To Sea needed a strategic partner with the capacity to support their expansion across the UK. From research, we knew that one of the main drivers for buying bottled water was a lack of places to fill up when on-the-go (49%). 63% would also be prepared to stop buying bottled water if they could guarantee they could refill their reusable bottle at a café, restaurant or public fountain. This is where Culligan proved so pivotal – to help change behaviour towards refill and reuse, City To Sea needed to improve the infrastructure, meaning more publicly accessible drinking water fountains, particularly in major travel hubs such as train stations and airports.

As we embark on our seventh year working together, we wanted to celebrate the many wins we’ve shared, all rooted in our mutual commitment to stopping single-use plastic pollution at source.

Refill On-The-Go

Refill and Culligan’s first collaboration was with Network Rail, working together to install fountains at all Network Rail stations across the UK which saved over 3 million plastic bottles in the first year. We then joined forces with Heathrow Airport to install more than 150 water fountains across the airport, as well as Bristol Airport and London City Airport to help travellers stay hydrated on-the-go. Thanks to our partnership, we were able to work together to tackle plastic pollution at major travel hubs by improving the infrastructure and accessibility of Refill.

Powering The Refill Revolution In The Capital

Refill and Culligan teamed up on an exciting project in Canary Wharf which aimed to cut 100,000 single-use plastic bottles from across its sites. As a plastic-free alternative, Culligan provided seven water refill stations.

We also worked together to facilitate the collaboration between Greater London Authority and Thames Water. This saw 100 water fountains installed by Culligan across the capital. The legacy of the collaboration is long-standing – there are now over 4,600 places to refill across the city and the Mayor of London continues to support the Refill London campaign.

Making A Splash On The Coast

As part of City to Sea’s Turning the Tide initiative with BCP Council, Culligan helped bring the #RefillRevolution to life across Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole’s coast. Together, we transformed the seafront and tackled the problem of plastic pollution in the area. Culligan installed 21 water fountains across the seafront.

An Un-Wave-Ring Partnership

Over the years, Culligan has supported Refill’s growth into a global movement. As of November 2023, there have been over half a million downloads of the free Refill app and the campaign has saved an estimated 60 million+ plastic bottles – and the excellent Refill infrastructure Culligan has provided has contributed to this figure immensely. As we approach the New Year and look ahead to 2024, we’re excited to work on a wider selection of Culligan products across a range of environments and are delighted to continue to work together to make drinking water more accessible and single-use plastic bottles a thing of the past.