Bristol’s second free drinking water fountain was opened by Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol last week - the fountain supports the ongoing Refill campaign, started by Bristol campaigners City to Sea.

The scheme aims to reduce the amount of plastic waste going into the sea, as it is predicted that by 2050 there will be more plastic in the oceans than fish if plastic bottles continue to be thrown away at the current rate.

The campaign, which started in Bristol, is now being picked up by other cities across the UK with Birmingham and Brighton continuing the refill initiative.

A partnership between environmental consultancy Eunomia Research & Consulting Ltd, Bristol Waste, Bristol City Council and Bristol Water made the new water fountain in Queens Square possible.

The fountain and the one in Millennium Square support over 200 businesses in Bristol that have signed up to offer water for the public.

“We have been supporting City to Sea and the Refill campaign for a couple of years. It is great to see other cities, such as Birmingham and Brighton, starting up similar campaigns, but Bristol is leading the way with over 200 refill stations available,” said Ben Newby, Customer Services Director at Bristol Water.

Environmental consultancy Eunomia offered to pay for the fountain, which is being installed near its head office in the North-West corner of Queens Square.

Eunomia has completed several pieces of research into the sources of marine plastic and the solutions available to tackle the problem. It supports local initiatives as well as makes policy recommendations via its ongoing work with the European Commission and other stakeholders.

Dominic Hogg, Chairman of Eunomia, said:

“There’s a growing awareness of the problems created by littering and especially of plastics. As well as being an eyesore, littered bottles can find their way to our oceans where they slowly degrade, causing problems for wildlife and for us. Drinking water from disposable bottles is also needlessly wasteful. Every time a portable water bottle is refilled, we’re saving enough carbon to charge a mobile phone five times over. That’s why we’re using our company offset scheme to fund it.”

Some 600 square miles of marine litter covers the seabed in the North Sea, with  8,000,000 tonnes of plastic waste entering the sea from land each year.

An estimated 100,000 marine mammals and reptiles die each year because of plastic rubbish.