{"id":1009,"date":"2020-12-17T11:03:51","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T00:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/curious\/?p=1009"},"modified":"2020-12-09T11:04:54","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T00:04:54","slug":"clean-up-our-ocean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/curious\/clean-up-our-ocean","title":{"rendered":"The faces cleaning up ocean plastic"},"content":{"rendered":"

We know the story: plastic waste is clogging our landfills, sullying our nature preserves and overwhelming the planet\u2019s oceans. Discarded plastic is piling up in even the furthest-flung corners of the world, from the Himalayan mountains to the Maldives.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This waste has become so ubiquitous that it\u2019s in the air we breathe and the water we drink. <\/span>Scientists estimate we consume a credit card\u2019s worth of microplastic each year, so it\u2019s lurking in your digestive system too.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Twenty-two million kilograms of plastic streams into our oceans every day. Even as we brave the gargantuan job of collecting plastic litter from our sea and our beaches, more pours in. So how do we solve the issue of waste in our seas? This is the question that designers, social enterprises and entrepreneurs are now exploring.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Much more complex than scrounging for bottles off the beach, a new wave of start-ups is dreaming up ways to tackle the pollution problem while also disrupting the plastic supply chain. Their ethos is two-fold: collection and waste management are not cure-alls; we must also be talking about reduction of production and consumption.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The companies set to make the biggest impact are those creating solutions that are more appealing than their single-use plastic counterparts. For Ocean Bottle, a UK-based social enterprise that funds the collection of 1000 ocean-bound plastic bottles with every reusable bottle purchase, it\u2019s about creating what co-founder Nick Doman calls \u201ca system of convenience\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Single-use plastics are inarguably convenient, but Ocean Bottle isn\u2019t trying to wrestle us out of our love affair with the easiest option. For them, it\u2019s about solutions that work better than a grab-and-go plastic bottle. \u201cPlastic is all about convenience, so if we\u2019re going to see a shift away from it, we need to be thinking about solutions that are more efficient,\u201d says Nick.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ocean Bottle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ocean Bottle is working on several partnership ventures across the UK; one has seen the impact-based company team up with city water refill stations \u201cto offer an option that is cheaper and easier than buying bottled water\u201d, reveals Nick.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a market saturated with reusable stand-ins, plastic alternatives must work hard if they\u2019re going to succeed. Ocean Bottles have a smart-chip in their base which will soon allow bottle owners to fund the collection of even more ocean-bound plastic by using their bottle at partner locations such as gyms and cafes. It\u2019s a win-win, says Nick. \u201cBusinesses can incentivise behaviour and consumers can connect and contribute to the plastic solution.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For all its clever consumer triumphs, Ocean Bottle was not originally about creating a reusable product. Nick and his co-founder, William Pearson, had a simple goal: \u201cWe wanted to turn off the tap of plastic going into the water.\u201d <\/span>The pair toyed with several ideas that could fund better waste management systems in coastal communities and finally landed on a reusable bottle. A portion of revenue from the bottle sales would go towards paying above-market price for ocean-bound plastic in countries struggling with waste management.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe asked ourselves, \u2018are we just putting more crap into the world by creating yet another product?\u2019\u201d said Nick. Hundreds of consumer surveys later, the Ocean Bottle team had their answer: there simply wasn\u2019t a bottle design out there that catered for everyday, long-term use. The Ocean Bottle is made from stainless steel and recycled plastic, is both dishwasher safe and designed for handwashing, and has a double opening that allows a dish brush inside.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ocean Bottle\u2019s success is rooted in the understanding of society\u2019s convenience habit, and others are taking a similar stance. Not willing to disrupt consumer comfort, household cleaning company ZeroCo has created a drop-off system that works better for consumers.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the home<\/b><\/h1>\n

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Like an old-fashioned milkman model, ZeroCo delivers household cleaning and personal care products to your door in \u201cbeautifully designed, forever dispensers\u201d made from plastic waste pulled from the ocean. Dispensers are refilled via pouches made from recycled landfill materials, which are sent back to the company in a prepaid envelope to be cleaned, sanitised and reused.<\/span><\/p>\n

Disturbed by the rubbish he encountered when travelling the world, founder Mike Smith set himself a challenge: to think of an idea that would attack the problems at both ends of the plastic supply chain. \u201cWe need to do two things to solve the problem,\u201d he says. \u201cWe need to stop making and using single-use plastic, and we need to do something about the mountains of plastic that have already found themselves in our rivers and oceans.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Like the Ocean Bottle founders, Mike was \u201ccompletely industry or category agnostic\u201d when he started thinking about the plastics problem. \u201cI knew I wanted to solve the problem in a way that would have the biggest impact, and that was my starting point,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mike spent \u201can uncomfortably long time\u201d in supermarkets stalking people\u2019s buying habits, but his \u201cah ha\u201d moment came in the last three aisles, where the home cleaning and personal care products live. These are responsible for one billion single-use plastic bottles a year in Australia, only 12 per cent of which are estimated to be recycled. With his eyes on one of the most rampant polluters, Mike wanted to create an alternative that relied less on plastic and offered consumers a better option than buying the big brands.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Convenience was to be at the heart of the solution. \u201cThe products we make \u2014 laundry liquid, shower gel, hand wash and house cleaners \u2014 are bulky items; we\u2019re talking 20 kilos worth of stuff that you would otherwise have to lug home from the supermarket,\u201d he says. The ZeroCo solution works because, like Ocean Bottle, it meets a triple-threat criteria: it taps into our obsession with convenience, makes proper use of plastic, and tackles marine plastic litter. But is life without plastic possible? Mike says that\u2019s not the point. \u201cPlastic in itself is not the devil \u2014 it\u2019s been an incredible product for human expansion,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s less about demonising plastic and more about shining a spotlight on the way we\u2019re misusing it.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The genius of plastic is that it\u2019s cheap and lasts forever, points out Mike. \u201cIt\u2019s not meant to be used once and chucked away.\u201d ZeroCo celebrates the triumph of plastic technology through its forever dispensers, proving that solutions don\u2019t have to be plastic-free, but rather plastic-appropriate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Enter Econyl<\/b><\/h1>\n
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Photo credit | Cleonie Swim<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The appropriate use of plastic is perhaps the key to a future with less waste. Garnering attention are the swimwear brands using recycled plastic waste recovered from the ocean, such as high-end Aussie favourite Peony and boutique brands including Cleonie. But follow the supply chain of these labels and you will arrive at the same place: Econyl.<\/span><\/p>\n

Produced from recycled fishing nets, carpets and other such plastic waste, Econyl is a special nylon that was invented by the Italian company Aquafil nine years ago. It has spread quickly in the fashion and design world as the super material that turns waste into fashion solutions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The beauty of Econyl is that it performs exactly the same as virgin nylon and can be regenerated an infinite number of times without losing its quality, something that attracted Kitty Scott, founder of swimwear brand Cleonie, to the material. \u201cThe quality is just so high and it\u2019s beautiful to sew with, so it\u2019s a no-brainer for both the design and production element as well as the sustainable side of Cleonie,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cleonie means goddess of the water, a fitting name for a brand that produces swimwear made from plastics recovered from the ocean. \u201cThe idea was to blend beautiful design with a sustainable focus,\u201d says Kitty, who began working on her brand full time in 2018. \u201cI wanted to put something into the market that was well-made locally and from the most sustainable fabric I could find.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Labels like Cleonie are brand upcyclers \u2014 creating beauty out of waste \u2014 but looking at <\/span>Kitty<\/span>\u2019s swimwear, <\/span>you wouldn\u2019t guess she has made sustainability her mission before even the design elements. Crucially, Cleonie swimwear proves that conscientious fashion can compete with the mainstream fashion industry in terms of aesthetics. <\/span>It\u2019s certainly not about settling for second-best for the planet\u2019s sake; alternative fabrics don\u2019t equal frumpy designs.<\/span><\/p>\n

A mile away from hemp overalls and hippie pants, the brand has become known for its beautiful prints, often the result of collaborations with Aussie artists Kitty admires, including Wendy Bills and Bonnie Gray.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Econyl allows brands to rethink what sustainable fashion looks like, giving designers the tools to create pieces that are simultaneously beautiful, durable and sustainable. The industry\u2019s uptake of such materials shows <\/span>that the opportunities are endless if we are willing to rethink our approach to waste.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The path to cleaning up our oceans is not a simple one and will require sweeping changes across all levels, but as these businesses underscore, one thing is clear: clever solutions, not the same old problems, are what is needed. In the end, the real challenge is to combat the model of big business that thrives on wasteful products and packaging. But we don\u2019t need to wait for cosmetic laws that ban plastic shopping bags or straws to see that change. \u201cGovernment, big business and consumers don\u2019t act independently,\u201d says Nick. \u201cConsumers buy from businesses that lobby governments voted in by the people. Changing your buying habits has a ripple effect, sending signals to businesses.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But if Ocean Bottle is fighting wasteful big-business models at a grassroots level, ZeroCo is going straight for the jugular. \u201cThe only way big business is ever going to change is if their bottom line is affected,\u201d says Mike. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to hurt their bottom line by stealing as much of their business as we can.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new wave of start-ups is tackling the complex challenge of cleaning up our oceans by building systems of convenience and finding new uses for the plastic polluting our planet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105,104],"tags":[137,158,238,240,136,237,236,138,239],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/curious\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/curious\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/curious\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/curious\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/curious\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1009"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/curious\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1083,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/curious\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009\/revisions\/1083"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/curious\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/curious\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/curious\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/curious\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}