Don’t Bin It, Refill It This World Refill Day

While many Australians are refilling coffee cups, water bottles and re-using shopping bags, research suggests a reluctance to switch onto refilling other items.

Sunday, June 16 is World Refill Day - a global initiative to encourage people to get behind refilling in a bid to reduce the estimated 240 million tonnes of plastic waste produced each year.

The campaign is designed to accelerate the transition away from single use plastic towards refill and reuse systems.

A recent survey conducted by Pilot Pen Australia found that 87 per cent of office workers were aware that their everyday plastic writing pens could be refilled but only 50 per cent actually did it.

Head of marketing for Pilot Pen Australia, Jarrad Murray said with the average office worker using 15 pens and markers per year, in a company of 100 employees, that worked out to be approximately 1,500 plastic pens and markers that were going straight into landfill, which was obviously not desirable, not to mention the missed opportunity to save some money.

“If we can refill water, coffee cups and mechanical pencils, then why not pens?” Mr Murray asked.

Psychotherapist Eugene Pepper said that part of the problem was that people found it difficult to change habits, even though they wanted to.

“Changing habits takes time and effort,” Mr Pepper said.

“Consistency is the key, so my advice is to clearly define what sustainable habits you want to adopt and then repeat the behaviour until it becomes automatic.”

To encourage pen refilling, Mr Murray said Pilot Pen had introduced a refill finder to its website to allow people to match their pen to the right refill, together with an online calculator that could predict the cost and carbon footprint savings of refilling, so people could see the positive impact they’re making.

“Our calculator shows that by refilling just one pen, you can reduce its carbon emissions by 40 per cent and plastic use by 31 per cent - the equivalent of 49 kilometres or 30 plastic bottles, not to mention the cost savings,” Mr Murray said.

“Multiply this by 100 pens and this increases to the equivalent of over 3,000 plastic bottles.

“We hope to encourage everyone to start refilling their pens to help keep them out of landfill and on their desk or in their pocket.”

Visit https://pilotpen.com.au/find-refills to find a refill.

• Topics:

• Recycling
• Environmental Issues
• Living and Lifestyle