Our consumers care deeply about this issue and by using ocean plastic we hope to show that the opportunities are endless when we rethink our approach to waste.”
Procter & Gamble (P&G) is taking steps to tackle the millions of tonnes of plastic floating in the world’s oceans with the production of a bottle made from 100% waste plastic. As part of the eco drive, P&G will be making 320,000 bottles for its Fairy Ocean Plastic range in conjunction with Terracycle. Available to buy in 2018, the bottles are intended to raise awareness of the colossal amount of ocean plastic pollution. According to Ocean Conservancy, an organisation set up to tackle the issue, eight million tonnes of that ends up in the world’s oceans.
The largest production of its kind in the world, the latest sustainable bottle from P&G – 10% of which contains ocean plastic – adds to the company’s existing commitment to reducing the amount of plastic that makes its way to landfill. P&G has diverted 8,000 metric tonnes of plastic from landfill for use in transparent plastic bottles, using an average of 40% recycled plastic content across the 481 million of transparent bottles it sells.
irginie Helias, vice president of global sustainability at P&G, said the point of Fairy Ocean Plastic was to raise awareness of the “plight of our ocean and the importance of recycling”. “Our consumers care deeply about this issue and by using ocean plastic we hope to show that the opportunities are endless when we rethink our approach to waste,” said Helias.
Terracycle is an ideal choice for the eco-bottle, owing to the fact the company has, since being it was formed in 2001 specialised in working with hard-to-recycle waste – such as Nespresso pods and batteries. Its founder and chief executive officer, Tom Szaky, said it was proud to be working on the project. “The issue of ocean pollution is a pertinent one, we hope other brands will be inspired to think creatively about waste and make the circular economy a reality,” said Szaky
Susan Ruffo, managing director at Ocean Conservancy, said P&G’s involvement is critical to solving the ocean plastic crisis. “They are also addressing the source of ocean plastic by supporting our initiative to raise over $150 million over the next five years to improve waste collection, sorting and recycling in key ocean plastic economies,” said Ruffo.
Somewhere in the region of 300 million tonnes of plastic is manufactured globally every year, with around half of that designed for single-use plastic. Plastic that makes it into waterways and oceans is often consumed by fish and other sea life, which is in turn then consumed by humans. A particularly easily-digestible form of plastic are the microbeads that are used as an exfoliant in beauty products and cosmetics, with potentially tens of thousands of the balls oftcontained in each container.
Greenpeace won a successful campaign to ban their use in the UK by June 2018.
