While players competed at Wimbledon last month to become champions on the tennis court, there was a champion off the court that deserves our praise and attention, too — a champion of the environment, that is. Evian has partnered with Wimbledon on a refill system to reduce plastic waste at the event.
Evian has been the official water partner of the Wimbledon Championships since 2008, Energy+Environment Leader reported. The company debuted its first refillable water system on the court during Wimbledon in 2023, and 2024 is the first year spectators in London could stay hydrated with Evian natural mineral water through a refill system.
"We know that refill plays, and will continue to play, a major role in the way people consume water here in the U.K.," said Evian spokesperson Gemma Morgan, per the news report. "The response to the player refill system last year was incredibly positive, so we want to expand refill to spectators to explore the potential at a larger scale."
The eco-friendly initiative marks a big step in Evian and Wimbledon's joint efforts to reduce plastic waste during The Championships by encouraging players and spectators to refill and reuse, rather than fill trash receptacles with plastic water bottles.
"We want to design out waste and promote a culture of reuse," Hattie Park, sustainability manager at The All England Lawn Tennis Club, told Energy+Environment Leader, "so working together with Evian to evolve and expand the refill pilot to our guests at The Championships this year is a really important step forward."
Spectators could buy unlimited Evian water refills for $6 using a QR code, which they could use with any refillable container, or get a limited-edition refillable Evian bottle for $30 with refills included, per the outlet. Moving forward, players will be given reusable bottles to refill with Evian water on-court and at designated player areas.
Similar to Evian's partnership with Rothy's, big corporations can make it easier for consumers to avoid waste and play a major role in reducing the millions of tons of plastic that the Environmental Protection Agency says enters the environment every year in the U.S. That's in addition to the hundreds of millions of tons of plastic waste estimated by the United Nations to be produced globally each year.
This plastic waste chokes our oceans, causes irreversible damage to ecosystems and human health, and contributes to rising global temperatures.
We can all do our part by supporting initiatives like this by big brands, finding replacements for plastic in our daily lives, and ditching single-use water bottles.
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