Radar 1/7 Packaging
Ecover trials ocean plastic waste ‘trawls’
Ecover has raised the bar in closed loop packaging by creating a recycled poly- mer mix for its bottles that will incorpo- rate plastic waste fished out of the ocean. In a world first, from 2014 Ecover bot- tles will be manufactured from a mix- ture of post-consumer recyclate, its own bio-based Plantastic sourced from sugar cane, and plastic pollutant ‘sea waste’. The announcement is the latest bid from the ecological laundry products brand to remain one step ahead of its competitors in sustainable packaging.
Back in 2010 its sugar cane-derived Plantastic material set an industry benchmark in moving away from fossil- resourced plastics. Other brand leaders such as Cola-Cola have followed suit with similar plant-based alternatives. In launching the “innovation triple” Ecover chief executive, Philip Malmberg, said his company wanted to challenge
Ecover’s “innovation triple” will use plastic sea-sourced waste in its manufacturing process
standard practice by continually invest- ing in such trail-blazing initiatives. “We want to create green products that deliver more than just a nod in the direc- tion of sustainability … and we want to inspire others to do the same,” he main- tained.
Ecover will work in partnership with plas- tics reprocessor Closed Loop Recycling to deliver the material needed, and trials are already underway to test the perfor-
mance of the new polymer mix. Asked by SB what percentage of the mix would contain ‘sea waste’, Ecover’s innovation manager, Tom Domen, said it was difficult to tell at this stage. “What the inputs or outputs will be are still uncertain in terms of quality, but we hope the material will contain at least a few percent of sea-sourced plastic waste.” Meanwhile, Closed Loop Recycling CEO, Chris Dow, told SB that the marine
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