Landsec expands refill scheme to unite 136 retailers in the fight against single-use plastics

FTSE-100 Landsec has successfully united 136 retail brands across 241 individual locations in the fight against single-use plastic bottles.  Landsec, the owner of some of the UK’s most popular retail destinations – including Trinity Leeds and Westgate, Oxford – launched the campaign after research found that 59% of shoppers would feel uncomfortable asking a retailer to refill their bottle without purchasing something first. Refill Me aims to break down this barrier to enable shoppers to adopt sustainable habits with ease. 

The scheme now operates across 23 of Landsec’s retail and leisure sites. Participating brands include Caffé Nero, Costa Coffee, Lush, McDonald’s and Pret A Manger. 

Caroline Hill, Head of Sustainability at Landsec, commented: “Single-use plastics cause significant damage to the environment; it can take up to 450 years for a plastic bottle to biodegrade. At Landsec, we use our retail and leisure destinations as a platform to reduce our environmental impact and educate guests to make sustainable choices. Through collaboration with our site teams and brand partners, we aim to reduce customer reliance on single-use plastic at our destinations.”

Oliver Rosevear, Head of Environment at Costa Coffee, said: “At Costa Coffee we are committed to reducing our impact on the environment and playing our part to tackle the issue of plastic waste. We were delighted to join Landsec’s Refill Me campaign to promote the use of reusable cups and water bottles within our stores – allowing customers to refill their water bottles for free, with no purchase required. We have been very impressed with the scheme so far and we’ll continue to show our support going forward.”

Landsec’s Refill Me campaign forms part of a wider strategy to embed sustainability across its retail destinations. Other recent sustainability campaigns have included the introduction of a UK-wide coffee cup recycling scheme which aims to decrease the number of single-use coffee cups sent to landfill, and a trial, pop-up textile recycling kiosk at Westgate, Oxford, where guests were able to recycle unwanted garments of clothing.