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Last week Lois and I had a very special delivery at the Watermill. Here’s Lois to tell you about it.
Yes, these are the Ocean Bottles* which are helping us in our fight to reduce the pollution of our oceans. As Lois says above, we have created a project to collect 450 kgs of ocean-bound plastic from the world’s most polluted rivers and waterways this year, and to ensure that it is not dumped into the sea. This is equivalent to around 40,000 single-use half-litre bottles. It means, as Lois said, that the Watermill has become ‘plastic neutral’ by pulling out of the ocean as much as plastic as it uses.
What’s more, every time you fill up with water in the beautiful insulated aluminium flasks (we loan you one for your week with us), you’ll also stop even more plastic polluting the oceans.. We’ll show you how when you arrive.
The Watermill no longer buys water in plastic bottles. Instead, we’ve invested in a clever water dispenser for our communal kitchen which produces filtered water (at ambient temperature, cold or fizzy.) You can fill up your Watermill Ocean Bottle any time you’d like.
* Ocean Bottle, a British company, works worldwide to bring a ‘people-powered solution to the ocean plastic crisis.’ Through the sales of its recyclable insulated bottles, it raises money to pay people to collect plastic in coastal communities where plastic pollution is worst.
The company guarantees this collection through regulated waste-management tracking and verification. The plastic collected is recycled and this process is also monitored. Moreover, the company works with local collectors, who exchange plastic for money, helping them to be financially more secure and to gain access to social resources such as healthcare and education. Since launching in 2019, Ocean Bottle has prevented more than seven million kgs of ocean-bound plastic from reaching our oceans. That’s equivalent to 636 million plastic bottles.
Currently eight million metric tonnes (8,000 million kgs) of plastic winds up in the oceans every year. The Watermill’s contribution may be a drop in the ocean, but it’s important, nonetheless.