Free water refills in Montgomery
An community on the Shropshire/Mid Wales border has become a 'Refill town' as part of the international battle to reduce plastic bottles.
Montgomeryshire has signed up to the national Refill scheme with the Dragon Hotel the first business to get involved.
Refill is a national tap water campaign which aims to make refilling your water bottle easy and convenient by signing up refill stations.
It has produced a map that can be downloaded to phones that lets users know the locations where you are welcome to fill your bottle for free.
Stuart Taylor from the Dragon Hotel said: “We are proud to be a ‘Refill Station’. If you are visiting Montgomery and need your water bottles topped up, then feel free to pop in and say hello!”
Attending the Montgomery Street Fair in the heat, Sharon Bishop was in full support of the scheme.
"I was really grateful to the Dragon Hotel for letting me refill my reusable water bottle during the day and with ice too. It is a great scheme, especially in this weather."
Organisers say that with the Montgomery Trails scheme is encouraging increasing numbers of cyclists, walkers and families to visit the town.
They want other local businesses to join the scheme to help keep visitors hydrated, while at the same time reducing the number of single-use plastic bottles. Find out more at www.refill.org.uk/about-refill,
Montgomery launched a series of trails over the May bank holiday weekend, aimed at all ages and abilities.
Money for the project in the historic, Welsh border town of Montgomery has come from an award of £5,000 from Big Lottery ‘Awards for All’.
The Montgomery Trails include two family-friendly quiz trails for younger and older children, four walking trails devised by the local Walkers are Welcome Group, four cycling trails and a Heritage Town Trail.
Another mid Wales town, Llanidloes is doing its utmost to stop plastic bottles and other rubbish ending up in the sea.
The Message in a Bottle scheme was launche by Philip Stallard from Llanidloes to clean up the town and the upper reaches of the River Severn and roll the project downstream, from source to sea.
Last month the town held a mass clean-up day picking litter and holding events to promote re-cycling and re-use of plastic.
Businesses in Llanidloes are also looking at ways of cutting down the use of plastic.
