Thirst for change: how the refillable bottle became a big hit

Passengers on London Underground and Manchester's Metrolink are urged to do it.

- Esther Addley

Councils from Sunderland and Norfolk to Cardiff and Hounslow want their residents to do it. Many schools have been asking students to do it for ages. And now a growing number of high street outlets, including Greggs, Costa Coffee and Neal's Yard Remedies, want to make it easy to do it, wherever you are.

Happily, lots of people in Britain are way ahead of them and are doing it already - carrying a refillable water bottle, that is. Whether they do it for economy, hygiene, hydration or environmental reasons, for many people filling up a water bottle before they step out the door is now as habitual as picking up their keys or wallet.

In 2015, just 20% of people in the UK used a refillable water bottle, according to the anti-disposables campaign Refill. That figure is now almost 60%, they say. Topping up a bottle from a tap, once seen as the preserve of the stingy or abstemious, is also big business, with the refillable bottle market in Europe worth about £1.5bn a year, a figure expected to grow by almost 40% by 2028.

The challenge, say activists, is to encourage people to do so, and cut down on the 10m single-use bottles bought every day in the UK, 700,000 of which are discarded as litter.