Bucket fountain filled with bottles

It’s a sight to cringe at – the Cuba St bucket fountain filled with plastic bottles.

The capital landmark was filled with bottles yesterday to mark ‘‘turn the tide on plastic day’’, and to demonstrate how a bottle deposit scheme could reduce plastic waste.

At Cuba St, people could remove the bottles from the fountain and give them to Kiwi Bottle Drive campaigners for a small refund – just like a real deposit scheme.

‘‘We had a lot more people coming up than I expected,’’ said Kiwi Bottle Drive campaigner Holly Dove, pictured.

The bottles were slowly collected, and within an hour, the fountain was back to normal.

Dove said the highlight was students from Kelburn Normal School who heard about the event and brought their own bottles.

They were refunded a small amount for each one, Dove said.

Bottle deposits could be the next plastic bag ban, saving more plastic from the environment and landfill than the bag ban, she said.

On December 4, the Kiwi Bottle Drive will present a petition at Parliament, signed by nearly 13,000 people.

‘‘Turn the tide on plastic day’’ is a nationwide day of action against the increasing amount of ocean plastics.

It was officially on Tuesday but the bucket fountain event was postponed until yesterday because of high winds that could have sent bottles flying.