We have just received the lovely ‘thank you’ video above from the charity Ocean Bottle, with whom we work to try to reduce the amount of plastic pollution in our oceans. (I must say, our contribution seems piffling when compared with the size of the problem, but as they say, every little helps.)
We have cut down the use of plastic by no longer buying our drinking water in plastic bottles. Instead, we loan our guests elegant, insulated Ocean Bottles, which they fill with water from the clever little dispensing machine in the communal kitchen, which provides fizzy or flat filtered water.
But we still use plastic, notably in containers to keep our food fresh and clean. Our total use works out at some 445 kg per year.
In a special deal with Ocean Bottle in 2023, we paid them to oversee the removal of the equivalent amount of plasticfrom the most polluted rivers and waterways around the world, before it reached the seas. That means that the Watermill (and its guests during their stay) are ‘plastic neutral’.
We have just done a similar deal for 2024, and we will offset all our plastic use again next year.
The Watermill also produces its own electricity, saving tons of carbon dioxide production from conventional power stations. But that’s another Cool and Green story that we will tell you later.