Refill Ireland are giving one lucky business in Wexford the chance to win a Community Refill Station Hub worth €2,000. Never before has action on climate change been more urgent and Refill.ie want to work with local businesses to help tackle one of the biggest contributors to this problem, single-use plastic.

Every day in Ireland 220,000 plastic bottles are generated and 69 per cent of these are not recycled, causing huge problems for our environment.

Set up in 2017, Refill Ireland’s mission is to drastically reduce our reliance on single-use plastic water bottles by making free tap water accessible at least every 400 meters in Irish towns and cities. As part of this mission Refill Ireland have created a Refill Map that businesses can sign up to appear on to let people know that they can refill their water bottle for free on their premises. So there is no need to buy bottled water when you are out and about! Across the country, Refill Ireland are supporting local businesses and communities by installing innovative Community Refill Water Station Hubs in business premises, providing free filtered water to the public. And now they are partnering with Wexford local council to give one lucky business the chance to win one.

To be in with a chance to win one of these Contactless Water Dispensers for your business in Wexford, increase footfall and do your bit for the climate emergency, all you have to do to enter the competition is register your business to appear on the Refill Tap Map at refill.ie/win. The prize includes signage and bespoke fitting for your store along with ongoing publicity to help encourage the public into your business and away from single-use plastic bottles.

Waterford woman Jennifer Taylor has long been interested in finding ways to reduce plastic waste. First she set her sights on plastic straws. A conversation with the manager of a late-night bar in Waterford city lead to the establishment agreeing to stop giving straws out with every drink. It was a small victory but it set the wheels in motion for more action.

Shortly after, Jennifer, now living in Cork, was in Douglas Community Park and was irritated by the amount of plastic bottles littering the walkways. She reached out to Cork City Council and worked with them to provide a water refill station so that park users could have access to drinking water without the need for single-use plastic. It was at this point that Taylor began to realise what positive changes could be achieved just from getting the conversation started and in 2020 she bit the bullet and decided to give up her day job in the insurance industry to pursue a career where her passion lay in climate action.

First working with The Cool Planet Experience in Powerscourt Wicklow back in 2018, a group whose vision it is to engage the public and schools on the impact of global warming. Here Taylor got to meet people from all walks of life, even brushing shoulders with royalty. “We didn’t know who we were going to meet that day, we were just told it was going to be a VIP and it ended up being HRH Prince Charles who was interested in the work we were doing in the community”, Taylor shares. Earlier this year Taylor began working with Refill Ireland, a not-for-profit whose mission is to reduce our consumption of single-use plastic water bottles by making free tap water accessible at least every 400 meters in Irish towns and cities. As part of this mission Refill Ireland have created a Refill Map that businesses can sign up to appear on to let people know that they can refill their water bottle for free on their premises. They also supply indoor and outdoor filtered water dispensers for businesses and they are partnering with Wexford local council giving one lucky business the chance to win a Community Refill Water Station Hub worth €2,000.

If you want to increase footfall for your business and help reduce plastic waste, all you have to do to enter the competition is register your business to appear on the Refill Tap Map at refill.ie/win.