Could free water filling stations soon be coming to Co Kildare?

Kildare County Council has said it is considering implementing a pilot scheme which would see see water filling stations set up to encourage members of the public to reduce their plastic waste.

The motion was raised by Cllr Peggy O'Dwyer at the recent sitting of the Kildare-Newbridge Municipal District on 29 August, where she called for the council to introduce a 'pilot scheme to install water bottle filling stations to encourage people to refill thereby reducing plastic waste.'

A spokesperson for the Council said: "It is agreed that this would be a very worthwhile pilot and, indeed, has

also been raised in recent times at municipal district level. The scheme cited ie. refill.ie is a commercial entity which seeks to encourage businesses to sign up to fill customers water bottles for free. Another entity is wefill.ie which is supported by the Environmental Protection Agency. The councils own Coffee Dock at Level 0 is actually listed as one of the participating outlets. These are mapped on their website so that people can check as to where the nearest location is.

"It is also agreed that providing such a facility in a public area would be worthwhile, particularly as this council is taking a lead in the whole area of climate action," they added.

Currently, the Community Section is working on an initial pilot which hopefully, will result in the first such facility being provided at the playground in Kildare Town.