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The success of water refill stations reducing single-use plastic bottle litter

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posted on 2023-05-24, 04:14 authored by Kathryn Willis, Britta HardestyBritta Hardesty, Joanna VinceJoanna Vince, Chris WilcoxChris Wilcox
Bottled water is one sector of the beverage industry that has recently experienced substantial growth. The littering of plastic water bottles and the carbon emissions produced from bottled water production results in harmful effects on the environment. To reduce the harm of bottled water production and litter, government and non-government organisations have implemented litter abatement and behavioural change strategies targeting bottled water consumption and subsequent loss of bottles to the environment. Our study evaluated the success of one of these strategies, which is a filtered water refill station, implemented along the Brisbane River in Queensland, Australia. We found plastic bottle litter decreased after a water refill station was put into operation. However, given the location of the refill station, we suggest the behavioural change strategy employed did not reach its full potential. We highlight factors that could be employed to achieve maximum benefits when implementing similar behavioural change strategies.

History

Publication title

Sustainability

Volume

11

Issue

19

Article number

5232

Number

5232

Pagination

1-17

ISSN

2071-1050

Department/School

School of Social Sciences

Publisher

MDPI

Place of publication

Switzerland

Rights statement

© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Repository Status

  • Open

Socio-economic Objectives

Assessment and management of coastal and estuarine ecosystems; Other environmental management not elsewhere classified

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