Cutting plastic pollution: How healthier hydration habits can reduce single-use waste in our communities

Reducing plastic pollution has become an urgent priority for local environmental strategies, particularly as councils and NHS partners seek to improve community spaces and reduce waste in public areas. Drink packaging, especially single-use plastic bottles and aluminium cans associated with sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), is a highly visible contributor to litter and environmental degradation across England. While recycling is widely promoted, evidence suggests it alone cannot resolve the problem. Data submitted to the UK Parliament show that of the 13 billion plastic bottles placed on the UK market in 2015, only around 7.5 billion were collected for recycling, leaving an estimated 5.5 billion potentially uncollected and at risk of entering the environment or waste systems like landfill and incineration (a recycling rate of roughly 57%). Much of the uncollected volume comprises plastic bottles used for water and soft drinks consumed ‘on the go’.

Parallel national evidence reinforces the scale of the issue on the ground. Keep Britain Tidy’s A Rubbish Reality report, based on a decade of surveys covering urban and rural sites across England, found that more than 90 per cent of surveyed locations contained litter, with drink bottles and cans among the most commonly encountered items. Litter is significantly more prevalent in the most deprived areas, where almost three times as much rubbish is found compared with the least deprived communities. These patterns underscore that visible waste persists in public spaces despite widespread recycling infrastructure and messaging.

Against this backdrop, Give Up Loving Pop (GULP) offers a behaviour-change approach that supports children to adopt healthier hydration habits—reducing reliance on packaged drinks and the environmental footprint associated with single-use packaging. The four-week, school-based programme combines interactive lessons with relatable delivery through community sports coaches, encouraging children to understand the environmental, as well as health, implications of their drink choices. Evaluation data show significant increases in pupils’ preference for water in school, sports, and out-of-home settings—a shift that can reduce the volume of single-use containers entering local waste streams.

By reinforcing tap water as the safest, cheapest, and most sustainable hydration option, GULP adds an environmental dimension to established oral health and nutrition messages. Most importantly, it tackles waste at the point of consumption rather than relying on end-of-pipe solutions such as recycling. This upstream focus can support local authorities in creating cleaner public spaces, reducing litter associated with drinks packaging, and encouraging sustainable behaviours across communities.