Kyiv is joining the international Refill program aimed at reducing the amount of single-use plastic used by city residents, the Kyiv City State Administration website reported on Tuesday.

"The Refill app allows you to find the nearest establishment where you can fill water in an eco-friendly bottle for free, get coffee in your own thermos or food in a lunchbox. The app will also display city pump rooms or fountains where you can fill up with drinking water. Thus, today Kyiv is joining the campaign, which has more than 335,000 Refill points worldwide. This is an important step for our city in the fight against plastic pollution," said Volodymyr Prokopov, deputy chairman of Kyiv City State Administration for the implementation of self-governing powers.

According to director of the department of environmental protection and adaptation to climate change Oleksandr Vozny, Kyiv expects the active involvement of local businesses and citizens in the project.

"Since its launch in 2015, the Refill movement has already helped save more than 60 million plastic bottles of water. We encourage local businesses to actively join this campaign by registering for free in the application or via the link, and Kyiv residents to use Refill and refuse unnecessary plastic," he noted.

Vozny added that the Refill application in Kyiv is working in test mode - participating establishments and locations with pump rooms and fountains will be added gradually. In addition, for now, only the English version of the application is available to users, but a Ukrainian version of the application is planned to be released soon. To join the campaign as a Refill station, local businesses are asked to fill in a special form: http://e.surl.li/zgmfcm.

Refill was founded by the City to Sea charity in the UK, initially to provide access to free drinking water, but later turned into a global movement. Today, Refill, in addition to the UK, operates in Italy, Ecuador, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, and Chile.