MARCH 2021

If you could fit Ocean Bottle’s mission into two sentences, what would they be? And how does Ocean Bottle go about achieving its mission?

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We enable anyone who gives a damn about this planet the opportunity to help turn the tap off ocean plastic. Each of our smart chip activated reusable bottles funds the collection of 1,000 plastic bottles in weight at purchase and stops this from entering the ocean.

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22 million kgs of plastic pours into the ocean each day on average. The combination of growing single use plastic production and a lack of waste management infrastructure particularly in impoverished coastal communities has led to plastics flowing into the ocean at an enormous rate. It’s now estimated that unless we do something drastic, ocean plastic will double by 2030. We are enabling individuals to have an impact on turning the tap off ocean plastic, whilst creating social mobility in coastal communities worldwide. 

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Ocean Bottle defines itself as an impact brand, what does it mean to be an impact brand? And what has your impact been to date?

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Since launching, we have funded the collection of 1,228,028kgs of ocean bound plastic, the equivalent in weight to 108,025,000 plastic bottles. Sustainability is about creating a positive impact, ensuring that future generations have the resources they need. ‘Simply doing less damage’ as a company is not enough. For us, this is about doing more for the planet and its inhabitants.

Ocean Bottle is a Social Enterprise and a B-Corp, what are your key social goals impacts?

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Our goal would be a world where we go out of business, with all ocean plastic stopped! 

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Our pledge is to fund collection equivalent to 7 billion plastic bottles by 2025. In the shorter term we’re hoping to make through Christmas and we are hoping a lot of companies will be wanting to give their employees Ocean Bottles. We also have a lot of exciting partnerships and marketing plans, as well as new products and also the smart chip platform. Each of our products is NFC activated for continued impact so people can fund more plastic collection just by bringing their bottle with them to partner locations which will enable us to exponentially increase our impact.

As a company prided on sustainability, and reducing plastic waste, what do you think is the single best thing individuals can do to reduce their plastic waste output?

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It’s no surprise that we might say, carry a reusable bottle! It’s very simple, but the effects are massive when you start to imagine 7 billion people doing or not doing it. We would recommend investing in durable, reusable items to eliminate single use plastics, such as bottles, coffee cups, bags and cutlery. It is an easy way to stop single-use in everyday life. We as consumers have a massive influence to change the world, just by being conscious about what we purchase.

What were your inspirations for Ocean Bottle? Was the idea born from the desire to have an environmental impact, a social impact, or both?

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Co-Founder, Will Pearson first became aware of the plastic crisis whilst working as a deckhand in the Indian Ocean. It was here he encountered Thilafushi in the Maldives, also known as ‘rubbish Island’. On Thilafushi, the plastic from resorts is predominantly burnt and left to drift out into the ocean. He then travelled to Colombia and found rivers quite literally choking with plastic.

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After these encounters, he felt inspired to take action. Action began with further research into the plastic problem, learning that 22 million kgs of plastic pour into the ocean every single day. He was left questioning how we could collect plastic before it enters the ocean, which is when he came across Plastic Bank who were in the process of setting up recycling infrastructure in some of the worst-hit places such as  Haiti, Philippines, Indonesia, and Brazil. He realised that this was a great solution and that we should connect people all over the world to it, which is where Ocean Bottle came in. I was determined to do something positive in the environmental space, but combine it with business. Noticing that consumers wanted to be empowered to make positive choices and be part of the solution, he started working on Ocean Bottle. Will met co-founder Nick at London Business School in 2017, they incorporated the company in 2018 and then travelled out to Norway to design the product with our design partners, K8. The design of the product itself took a full year and thousands of hours. It received the Red Dot Design and Green Product Award 2020 and we ended up with a Norwegian looking thing which balances aesthetics, sustainability and new levels of versatility.

Currently, there is a lot of literature surrounding environmental racism, and your brand believes that ‘environmental justice is social justice’, can you expand on this?

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Environmental action that fails to recognise the link between environmental injustices and dominant systems of racism, sexism, colonialism patriarchy and ageism is not acceptable. Internally, as a company we must take critical steps to educate ourselves how to find the often hidden injustices, we need to recognise them, admit them and turn them into action. Communications need to vocalise these injustices and we will strive to work with people, provide a platform and hire people who are in positions of injustice. Actively seeking and working to bring environmental justice.

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Environmental justice is a just and fair future for people as well as the planet, and environmental movements and organisations, including ourselves at Ocean Bottle need to do more to ensure the future we create is socially, racially and politically equal, just and fair for all.

What can we expect from Ocean Bottle in the future? 

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We’ve got some big goals to reach this year, one of them being to fund the collection of 3 million kgs of ocean bound plastic and further support the livelihoods of collectors in coastal communities. We will also be launching a new product in the summer, and growing our team to help us reach our impact goals. One of these new roles will be the Head of Platform, who will help launch and develop the world’s first impact platform and app for ocean health, helping individuals grow their impact from collecting 1000 plastic bottles at purchase to 10,000 a year! We also want to triple the donations to campaigns, NGOs and activists as equal to our revenue predictions.