Ocean Bottle Are Tackling the Ocean Plastic Crisis
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George Taylor
- 30th July 2020
- 6 minute read
It is estimated that the amount of plastic in our seas will double by 2030, and that over 75% of this will come from uncollected plastic waste.
Plastic pollution is causing catastrophic effects, not only in our oceans, but also in local waterways and communities. Production of these materials continues to grow exponentially, and waste management is not catching up.
Ocean Bottle has devised a long-term solution to the ocean plastic crisis that everyone can be a part of. They’re working to build a new currency for plastic waste, ridding the oceans of plastic and helping to reduce inequality at the same time.
Since launching on Indiegogo in January 2019, they have sold bottles to environment conscious customers living across 88 countries.
With the sale of every Ocean Bottle, 11.4kg of ocean-bound plastic (the equivalent of 1000 bottles) is collected before it enters the ocean, with a people-powered solution to saving our oceans.
Ocean Bottle partners with Plastic Bank who are globally recognised as one of the most innovative solutions to stopping ocean plastic and are using IBM blockchain technology to underpin the transparency of their plastic collection network – currently in the Philippines, Indonesia, Haiti and Brazil.
Together, they’ve put a value on plastic waste and, at the same time, they’re supporting local communities by creating jobs. Ocean Bottle is enabling people living in coastal areas to make a higher wage from collecting plastic – by giving up to 3x the usual market rate and enabling collectors to exchange plastic for valuable rewards.
Plastic collectors can exchange plastic waste for money or credit via the blockchain to spend on tuition, tech goods, health care and micro-finance.
The brand has funded the collection of 655,990 kg of plastic, and they’ve won some prestigious accolades, including Forbes 30 under 30, the Red Dot Award, Green Product Award and the London Business Environment Impact Award.
Reducing single-use plastic and getting everyone to take part in beach cleanups is going to help save our oceans but, to truly have an impact, it is important to have the recycling infrastructure needed to ensure plastic is collected and recycled before it enters the ocean.
That’s why Ocean Bottle was created – to empower individuals everywhere to be a part of this solution, stopping plastic from going into our seas.
“The future of retail needs to use business as a force for good, we’re proud to be part of a new era that involves customers and their purchasing power to have a real impact where it counts.“
Ocean Bottle
The Ocean Bottle is fitted with a smart chip. In future, retailers will be able to contribute to plastic collection on behalf of bottle owners in exchange for customer loyalty.
Developed together with award-winning Norwegian design agency, K8 – this is a bottle with flawless, unrivalled design and is sustainably made to make it the perfect companion to avoid single-use plastics.
The bottle is currently available in 5 planet Earth inspired colours: Ocean Blue, Sky Blue, Forest Green, Sun Orange and Rock Grey
By 2025, they plan to have funded the collection of over 7 billion plastic bottles and stopped these from going into our oceans.
You can find out more about Ocean Bottle here.
