Ecological cleaning products company Ecover has launched a bottle made from waste plastic from the ocean.
The Ecover Ocean washing up liquid bottle is made entirely of recycled plastic, with 10 per cent of it coming from material dumped in the ocean.
European fishing boats have been incentivised to collect the material, which is then sent to Closed Loop Recycling in Dagenham for processing before being turned into new bottles at Logoplaste.
This year, Ecover will use one tonne of ocean plastic in its bottles, and aims to increase this to three tonnes next year.
Ecover chief executive Philip Malmberg said: “The scale of the ocean plastic problem is enormous – around 46,000 pieces of plastic are swirling around every square mile of ocean, and every year at least a million sea birds and 100,000 sharks, turtles, dolphins and whales die from eating plastic. There is no choice – we simply have to clean up ocean plastic for good.
“Our ocean plastic bottle is just one small step on the way to solving the problem, but you’ve got to start somewhere. What we need to do now is to create a wider network of fishermen, recycling facilities and manufacturers to really make this happen. We also have to exploit existing supply chains and make it as easy as possible for manufacturers to use ocean plastic. At the moment, the will is there but it’s just too much effort for many manufacturers to make it work.”
Closed Loop Recycling chief executive Chris Dow added: “This is an exciting example of what we can do together in partnerships as well as addressing the environmental problem of waste plastic in the sea.
“Recycled plastic is a fantastic resource and as a result of this trial, we have proved with Ecover and the partners that we can develop innovative new ways of sourcing material and creating consumer products. We are hoping we will be able to build on this trial and take the scheme into commercial production.”
