The planet is in crisis and plastic is public enemy number one. We’re sure you, just like us, get a little dopamine hit out of ‘doing your bit’. Namely – recycling your goods, cancelling plastic straws and brandishing your tote bag like a badge of honour. Well, sorry to disappoint, but that’s not enough. Because 300 million tonnes of plastic is still thrown away every year.

A depressing thought, right?

Our brief? To put plastic to work by inspiring a new generation of eco-warriors to join the Refillution, raising awareness of Ecover’s refill range as we go and encouraging people to reuse, not just recycle.

There’s no location more synonymous with refilling than a gas-guzzling petrol station. So we found the ugliest, most down-trodden one London has to offer and transformed it into ‘The Ecover Refillery’ – a destination dedicated to fighting plastic waste with refills.

Turning pumps for petrol into pumps for Ecover’s environmentally conscious, plant-based, cleaning products, The Ecover Refillery attracted the attention of media, influencers and consumers from across the UK, and beyond.

To encourage guests to use eco-friendly modes of transport, we also built electric bicycle and scooter charging stations on site and also used the space to host inspirational panel discussions about the small changes we can all make to reuse rather than just recycle.

Prior to creative development, we carried out consumer research which found the average British household throws away 7.4 plastic bottles on average each week, the equivalent of 385 per household per year - all contributing to the 300 million tonnes of plastic thrown away every year. It’s no surprise, therefore, that one in two people (52 per cent) feel guilty about the amount of single-use plastic they use.

There’s a desire for change, however, as one in five (19 per cent) want to improve their refilling habits, confessing they feel guilty or embarrassed by the amount of plastic sitting in their recycling bin.

Armed with these stats, we knew there was ample appetite for a brand like Ecover to launch its own refilling station, we just needed to land on the right location...

First we had the idea of taking something synonymous with destroying the world, petrol, and wholly reimagining what a petrol station could be turned into.

We wanted to retain the same look and feel - forecourt, pumps, etc. and so worked with architects and location scouts to develop a blueprint for what our space could look like before tweaking our designs to work for a site specific build in Borough, London.

We shot content, issued listings releases, hosted (unpaid) influencers and journalists, and created a bank of assets for editorial media. And then we developed a comprehensive strategy to land repeated national coverage around the new venue, drive footfall and, ultimately, create conversation around the value of refilling.

Over 1,000 plastic bottles we're refilled every single day during launch, with our Refill ‘petrol’ pumps in huge demand and sometimes generating queues around the block. Better yet, people genuinely turn up with their own empty plastic bottles ready to refill.

We hosted over 5,000 people in the week of launch.

Since launch, we've landed over 100+ pieces of coverage, with every national news title covering the Refillery with a reach of over 315M.

Over 25,000 bottles have now been refilled (and counting).

Plus, the Borough community has been overjoyed to see a local eyesore totally transformed – something we’re extremely proud to have facilitated.