Published on: Friday, 13 November 2020
Last updated: Friday, 13 November 2020
The total number of single-use plastic bottles saved through Greater Anglia’s water fountains is approaching 370,000 – just two years after the first one was installed.
Greater Anglia now has water fountains at 12 stations: Colchester, Bishops Stortford, Ely, Billericay, Wickford, Cambridge, Chelmsford, Ipswich, Norwich, Witham, Shenfield and Tottenham Hale.
Free to use, the fountains dispense water automatically as soon as a bottle is put in place – with no need to touch any buttons or taps.
They include a tally so customers can see how many plastic bottles have been saved by each individual fountain.
The water fountains are contributing to preventing single-use plastic water bottles from entering and polluting landfill sites and oceans by encouraging passengers to refill their water bottles while travelling.
Cambridge station has saved the most plastic water bottles with 114,644 bottles refilled.
Greater Anglia’s Environment & Energy Manager, Stephanie Evans, said: “We are delighted to see the large number of customers that are helping the environment by using the water fountains to refill their reusable water bottles.
“It is great to see the popularity of the water fountains grow, knowing that in doing so tens of thousands of plastic water bottles are being saved from polluting landfill sites and oceans at every station with a fountain.
“We have now saved over 100,000 plastic water bottles at Cambridge station alone.”
“Protecting the environment is of utmost importance to us, so to make an impact in such a way that also involves the customers is brilliant.
“This directly helps the environment whilst also spreading awareness of what needs to be done and can be done to help further.
“We are continuing to do more to help the environment by delivering a number of projects to improve our energy efficiency and to operate in a more sustainable manner, such as installing LED lighting and providing free electric car charging points.
“We are also currently replacing our entire fleet of trains with new more energy efficient trains which are better for the environment than our older trains.”