York Gin bottle refill scheme makes company more sustainable

A new Gin Bottle Refill Scheme in the York Gin shop reduces carbon emissions and makes the company more sustainable. It reduces the number of bottles produced - which is great for the environment. The gin bottle refill scheme encourages customers to re-use bottles they’ve already used and cleaned.

Customers can bring any 70cl spirits bottle to the refill station at York Gin, Pavement. To encourage take up of the scheme, customers get a £5 discount. So it's great for the planet and great for the pocket!

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A £2,000 grant from local bus company First York has helped to finance the scheme.

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Bars and pubs get a re-use scheme too

York Gin has also used part of the grant to help its trade customers cut down on the number of bottles they use. Instead of sending individual bottles to bars, York Gin is offering a discount if they accept a Jerry can of gin - and fill the bottles they already have.

This could mean a huge reduction in the number of bottles used - and again York Gin are offering discounts to pubs, bars and restaurants to encourage take-up of the scheme. The first trade customers include York Viking bar, Valhalla, and the multi-award-winning Grays Court hotel. First York organised a competition for local businesses to share a £20,000 pot to develop schemes to help the environment.

Says co-founder Emma Godivala: ‘We have already done lots of work to minimise our environmental impact. We have a 100% green energy tariff, drive electric vehicles, have 100% plastic-free bottles and packaging and we source virtually everything in our supply chain from York and Yorkshire.

‘These new schemes will reduce our energy use further. Customers to the shop and our trade customers can really feel that they are doing their bit to help with the climate crisis.

‘We really want the message to get out to a wider audience and for more businesses to encourage this behaviour. Re-using things is so much better than even recycling.

It means items aren’t just thrown away after being used just the once.

And it has the potential to reduce the huge amount of energy used to melt down glass.'