Liquidating Liverpool Street Station… With Two Water Refill Stations

All this year, the MIW team has been working with the London Mayor’s Office and the #OneLess campaign to facilitate the London Drinking Fountain Fund. The aim is the installation of 50 water bottle refill stations in high footfall areas around the capital, in a drive to reduce the purchase of single-use plastic drinks bottles. MIW’s role is the donation and installation of the refill units. So far, it’s been a really exciting project to be involved with.

The first installation went into Kingly Court in Carnaby Street in May. It was used instantly and already seems to be an integral part of the shopping experience. This month we’ve continued the good work, installing two WRAS-approved Elkay EZH2O Bottle Filling Stations in London’s Liverpool Street Station.

Liverpool Street is one of the city’s busiest rail terminals, serving tens of millions of passengers every year. And it’s this high-footfall, coupled with the nature of the visits, that makes it such an ideal location for the LRP installations. Travelling can be thirsty work.

Liverpool Street Station Manager, Stuart Johnson comments on the installation: ‘We are really delighted to be part of the London Refill Project and host two water bottle refill units at Liverpool Street Station. Our station concourse welcomes more than 125 million passengers per year. These drinking stations not only allow us to provide a much-wanted new service for our passengers, but to potentially make a real difference to the environment. Even if only ten per cent of our travellers use the refill units, that’s more than a million plastic bottles saved every year.

‘The team from MIW have been great to work with, installing the units with minimal disruption. The new bottle fillers look good and are really easy use – perfect for the high number of visitors they’re likely to receive.

The two Elkay bottle fillers are filtered to remove any impurities, so drinkers will always get the best quality of water. The units are also chilled, so even in the sticky middle of summer, the water will be refreshingly cool.

Mike Winter, Director of MIW Water Cooler Experts, explains the choice of bottle filler and location selected for this installation: ‘Liverpool Street Station serves an enormous number of people, which makes it an ideal location for measuring the impact of free drinking water provision on plastic bottle reduction. And the Elkay units are ideally suited to the station environment, being durable, vandal-proof, and yet aesthetically-pleasing and easy to use.

‘The two Elkay filtered bottle refill stations that have gone into Liverpool Street Station were the #th we’ve installed as part of the London Refill Project. It’s been such a pleasure to work with the London Mayor’s office and the #OneLess campaign on this project, knowing the potential difference it could make to the environment. The UK currently uses 13 billion plastic bottles every year, so providing free drinking water could have a huge impact.

‘We’re confident that the staff and passengers of Liverpool Street will find the new drinking water stations a welcome addition to the concourse.’

If you would like to take advantage of the offer of free drinking water the next time that you visit London’s Liverpool Street Station, you can find the Elkay bottle fillers located in.