Refill Oxford
Refill Oxford is on a mission to make tap water the new normal.

The dreaming spires of Oxford are the iconic symbol of the legendary university town, but Oxford is much more than the university it is famous for. It is made up a diverse and thriving population working in a variety of industries from science and tech and car manufacturing to publishing and tourism.
Oxford is also lucky to have an incredible network of people and organisations working towards creating a more sustainable, greener city. Refill Oxford is just one of the many local grassroots initiatives working on plastic reduction. There are, for example, the many community-run farmers’ markets where you can do your grocery shop plastic free, including dried goods and detergents from SESI. There are also an increasing number of pop-up repair cafes and more recently a Library of Things to borrow from rather than buy new.
Why Refill?

Oxford has a huge transient population. Besides the 46,000 people commuting into the city every day, there are 40,000 students studying at the two universities during term time (the largest proportion of adult full-time students in the UK), and around 7 million visiting tourists every year. That is a lot of thirsty people on the move in Oxford!
Normalising the use of reusable water bottles for all those who live, work and visit Oxford could potentially have a huge impact on the consumption of singles-use plastic bottles. And that’s exactly what Refill Oxford aims to do.
Refill Oxford takes root…
Refill Oxford was started by Georgina Matthews who, frustrated at the lack of public water fountains in Oxford, set up the city’s own Refill scheme. The vision is to have as many refill stations as possible as well as public water fountains in key places around the city.
From the start of the campaign, there has been an amazing response from the local community — from local MPs to individual businesses and volunteers — proving that Refill is meeting an increasing demand for easier public access to water when out and about.

The Lord Mayor of Oxford, Cllr. Colin Cook said, “On the 15th May 1617 the first public supply of fresh water came to Oxford via the Carfax Conduit. Just over 400 years later we take potable water for granted and many people carry bottled water with them as a matter of course. I am more than happy to support the efforts of Refill Oxford to reduce the scourge of single-use plastic drinking bottles and their efforts to secure more sources of drinking water in Oxford.”
As of the end of August, a team of 30 dedicated volunteers, organised by Martha Wiltshire, has signed up over 100 new Refill stations across the city, including cafes, shops, museums, hairdressers, community centres and health centres.
Refill Oxford is sponsored by:

Refill Oxford is also supported locally by Oxford City Council, Oxford Bus Company, Experience Oxfordshire, The CAG Project, Friends of the Earth, Oxford and WRAP.
If you would also like to join Refill Oxford, email us at refill.oxford@gmail.com and we will get you signed up!
