An Overview Of Our Solution
RefillMyBottle is an online map of places where people can find refill station, we are a community of responsible travelers, conscious locals and mindful business owners who take action against plastic waste. We offer a simple alternative to buying bottled water and our goal is to reduce the number of single-use plastic bottles used unnecessarily throughout the world.
- Population Impacted: Average 5 million tourists per year
- Continent: Asia
Last name
Organization type
Context Analysis
Our community was founded initially in Bali. Over 5 million travellers visit Bali every year, staying in Bali for an average of 4 days. Tourists consume 2 litres of water each day. With each tourist using around 4 half-litre bottles a day, over 6 million disposable plastic bottles are used and discarded every month in Bali alone. The lack of waste management systems means that these water bottles end up in landfills, ocean, or burned which creates toxic fumes.
How do we ensure access to clean drinking water given that tap water is not drinkable here? We came up with the simple idea of providing access to drinking water to people - without having to buy a plastic water bottle. We created RefillMyBottle, an online map that identifies all the places where Refillers could walk in and fill up their bottle with clean water for free or a minimum fee. We invite businesses to join the initiative as refill stations.
Describe the technical solution you wanted the target audience to adopt
Our idea is to provide an alternative to buying plastic bottled water. We want people to know that there are places where they can refill their bottle, so they will start bringing their own reusable bottles. The tap water is not drinkable here in Indonesia, and in some other parts of the world. Thus, most of the time people need to buy plastic bottled water to stay hydrated. Our mission is to get all businesses to join as refill stations, provide clean drinkable water to refillers. On the other hand, we provide the platform (online map and app) to make it easier for refillers to find them.
On the updated app, Refillers will be measuring their impact, number of bottles saved from ending up in the Ocean or landfills and control their daily intake of water.
Type of intervention
Describe your behavioral intervention
We aim to shift people behavior from buying single-use plastic bottled water to refilling their reusable water bottle. We do so by providing the facilities. The project director, during her master degree in Climate Change and Development in the UK, did a comparative study on Indonesian students’ behavior towards the use of plastic bags, plastic bottles, and waste segregation. Majority of the students bring their own reusable bags and bottles when they live in the UK, and they always separate their waste into recyclable and non-recyclable. It is found that external factors, such as infrastructure, facilities, regulations and monetary, are the main determinants affecting their behavior. For example, the tap water is drinkable in the UK and there are water fountains available at most universities, this encourages people to bring their own bottle instead of buying plastic bottled water and save money.
Thus, by providing the refill facilities, it is expected that responsible travelers and conscious locals will start to bring their own bottles and refill.
As needed, please explain the type of intervention in more detail
From the refillers perspective: We are now developing a mobile app which will enable people to keep track on how many plastic bottles they have saved and they can also share their impact on social media. They will also collect points every time they refill and these points can be redeemed for a reusable bottle.
From the refill stations perspective: Businesses who become refill stations will get a sticker that they can display on their front store. Not only to help refillers identify them, but this is also to show that they care about the environment and take concrete actions against plastic waste
Describe your implementation
Our goal is to reduce the number of single-use plastic bottles used unnecessarily throughout the world, starting in Indonesia. By inviting local business as refill stations and uploading them onto the refill map so refillers can find them.
We aim to empower local communities to take the lead on reducing plastic waste by conducting a monthly sustainability meet-up, led by the local community.
We understand that not all businesses are able to provide free refills and need to make revenue to cover the cost of the water, thus we give option for them to charge the refill but it should not cost more than the cost of plastic bottled water in shops.
Key success factor in this initiative is community building. We rely on words of mouth to grow our refill network.
External connections
We partner with a number of local environmental organization as well as the travel industry. For instance, in Gili Island next to Bali, we work together with Gili Eco trust and Gili Sharks Conservation. They become our local ambassadors and leading the initiative in their local community.
We also partner with EXO Foundation who is our main donor for developing the mobile app and they now lead the RefillMyBottle initiative in Vietnam.
Our community is now growing beyond Indonesia as we team up with other organizations in Laos and Cambodia. We hope to bring this simple solution globally.
Who adopted the desired behaviors and to what degree?
Based on social media interaction and email communications, we can see that most of the refillers are responsible travelers who are already aware of the negative impacts of plastic.
How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?
Production of PET bottle requires million bottles of oils and for every 1 kg of burning oil creates about 3 kg of carbon dioxide. For the past year, we have saved thousands of bottles or equals to tons of carbon dioxide.
What were some of the resulting co-benefits?
RefillMyBottle is a community driven initiative, and every month the community gather to discuss and tackle local issue. The initiative also promotes sustainable tourism by providing an alternative for tourists to avoid buying single-use plastic bottles.
Sustainability
Our operation so far was funded by donors but with the new app we are planning to make this initiative more sustainable by offering ‘premium listing’ where refill stations can pay monthly fee to support our operation. Also we are planning to upcycle some glass bottles and sell them to those who do not have reusable bottles yet.
Return on investment
We received a lot of help from volunteers during our initial development, so the implementation cost was not high apart from the mobile app development which cost $6,000. The impact is great as now people have an alternative to buying plastic bottled water and with 700 stations, we have saved thousands of plastic bottles from ending in the ocean or landfills. However, as the initiative grows, we need to build a full-time team to manage and grow our reach and impact.
How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?
The solution can be replicated in any areas easily. We started in Bali but the initiative has grown to other neighboring islands as well as internationally. We work together with organizations and individuals who become our local Refill Ambassador and lead the program in their respective area. RefillMyBottle is now available in several countries in Southeast Asia.