A NEW campaign which encourages local businesses to offer their customers and visitors the opportunity to refill their water bottles for free has been launched in Chippenham.

Rob Gillies from local anti-litter campaign group Off The Ground helped launch Refill Chippenham with the help of The Garden and Good Energy on Friday afternoon in an attempt to reduce the levels of plastic waste in the town.

"Here in Chippenham we should be proud of our litter free streets, parks and rivers but unfortunately we can’t yet claim this accolade," he said. "Single use plastic bottles are one of the most frequently found items of litter in the town. In just four two-hour community litter picks in Chippenham last year we picked up nearly 1000 plastic bottles.

"Plastic takes hundreds of years to degrade, and it’s crazy to think that something which lasts so long is only useful to us for a few minutes. Refill Chippenham gives us all the opportunity to help make this type of litter a thing of the past at the same time.

"Every time we refill a re-useable bottle instead of buying and throwing away a single-use bottle we not only reduce the amount of plastic and fuel being used, we save a bit of money and help clean up our towns and open spaces too.”

The Garden has been named as the first eatery to join the campaign, which originally started in Bristol, although more are on the way.

For more information about the scheme or the refill stations in the town visit http://off-the-ground.org/refill-chippenham.