#FreeFill: Save lives across the world… just by drinking water at your favourite festivals!

As a sustainable, sharing business ourselves, we like to promote like-minded folk working to make the world a beter place. We last wrote about FRANK Water back in 2015, where we interviewed the charity’s founder, Kate Alcott. Now, the charity are back, and bigger than ever – as you’ll spot them at more festivals than ever before for 2016.

So who are FRANK Water, and what do they do at festivals? They’ve established local health and hygiene awareness programmes, conducted R&D into sanitation solutions, and worked with NGOs to help an estimated 200,000 people in India improve their health. They fund this by selling sustainable, re-usable water bottles at music festivals to cut back on waste, and offer free refills to ensure revellers stay hydrated; while giving all of the proceeds back to water development programmes throughout India.

You’re at a festival, and you spot FRANK FreeFill’s Team. Why should you get involved? Well, it’ll achieve a lot more than your basic hydration. The UK drinks 2 billion litres of bottled water annually – yet elsewhere in the world, people are dying from drinking dirty water. That’s a lot of plastic. But by refilling a bottle and recycling it to use over and over, you can lessen your environmental impact hugely – and the money you’re spending!

The FreeFill Team sell refillable bottles to festival goers for £5. Once purchased, you’re entitled to as many free refills of filtered, chilled water as you like in the bottle. Already got a bottle? No problem. Just buy a FreeFill wristband for £3, and you can enjoy the same free refills throughout the festival. All the profits go to fund safe drinking water programmes through the FRANK Water charity.

This year you can find FRANK at a great range of festivals who really care about sustainability – including Cornbury, WOMAD, and End of the Road.

Of course, these festivals are already on-board with Liftshare and making efforts to improve their environmental impact. It’s hoped that more festivals and events will get involved as they see the benefits of such great initiatives taking place.

If you’d like to learn more about FRANK and their FreeFill festive scheme, check out their official website.