Gloucestershire-based dairy farmers and producers of the award winning Godsells Cheese are marking World Refill Day (June 16) by joining the 'Refill App' that directs people to places they eat, drink and shop with less plastic.

Godsells farm at Leonard Stanley in Stroud offers an innovative 'refill station' where customers can refill their bottles with fresh milk from the farm alongside a vending machine that offers a range of other fresh produce. The machine has already saved over 13,000 single-use plastic milk cartons with comparable sales in refillable containers.

It is estimated that we now produce more than 300 million tonnes of plastic every year and up to half of which is single use. Worse still less than 10 per cent of the plastic we've produced has ever been recycled and 80 per cent has been sent to landfill or ended up in our natural environment.

World Refill Day is a global public awareness campaign to prevent plastic pollution and help people live with less waste.  For this year's campaign, City to Sea, the organisation behind the Refill campaign, along with thousands of other NGOs, sustainable businesses and individuals will be encouraging people to make small changes to their everyday shopping, reducing single-use plastic and finding out what they can refill or reuse near them.

Godsells Cheese have stepped up to this challenge logging their 'refill station' as part of the app and are encouraging customers to use the refill station more to avoid unnecessary single-use plastics. The machine is accessible 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

Owner Liz Godsell said: "We wanted to do our bit to encourage our customers to reduce their use of single-use plastics whilst offering an easy way to buy local produce. One of the easiest ways of doing this was to offer our milk fresh from the farm to customer's in containers that they can use time and time again. We would encourage everybody to come down to our farm shop and try out the milk refill machine."

Customers can bring their own bottles to refill or they can buy reusable glass bottles from the vending machine next to the machine which also sells a variety of local produce including Day's Cottage apple juice, Jess's  Ladies  Organic Kefir, and, of course, a selection of Godsells Cheeses.

"Godsells Cheese is a tasty example of a local business making it easier than ever for customers to choose to reuse," said Steve Hynd, Green Party councillor for Leonard Stanley and policy manager at City to Sea.

"This World Refill Day we have events happening from Japan to Ecuador but I am really proud that right here in Leonard Stanley, just outside Stroud, that we have businesses working with customers to tackle the plastic pollution crisis we face."

Siobhan Baille, MP for Stroud, added: "Plastic pollution is one of the issues that residents raise with me time and time again that this government is determined to tackle. But it is wonderful to see businesses here in Stroud, like Godsells Cheese, leading the way and helping people to cut down on the amount of plastic they use.

"We need a huge transformation in the way we consumer away from single-use plastic packaging towards reuse and refillable options. And Godsells have shown that this is possible and businesses can put the environment at the heart of their business while also supporting our local economy. Frankly, it's really 'brie-lliant' to see."