COVER STORY


Your first steps to sustainability with


Ocean Refresh We talk to the founder and CEO of Ocean Refresh, Bernardo Pedroso, about steps to becoming sustainable.


I


founded Ocean Refresh back in 2019 with the goal to help tackle the plastic waste problem in our oceans. Far too many retailers are still adding to this problem without thinking twice about churning out single use plastic for thousands of their products.


Everyday approximately 8 million pieces of


plastic pollution find their way into our oceans. There may now be as many as 5.25 trillion macro and micro plastic pieces floating amongst our open oceans, weighing up to 269,000 tones.


As you can imagine much of this is ruining the beauty of our oceans and


beaches. My concern is the countless number of species that face possible extinction, along with the collapse of our entire ecosystem.


This is something we, as individuals and companies, can help stop


happening if we all act together to reduce plastic waste. But also remove the plastic waste that is already polluting our planet. One of the first steps our high street retailers should look at is switching from plastic hangers to carton or wooden hangers. Picture the hundreds of thousands of plastic hangers that cannot be recycled sitting in our high street stores today.


Switching to wooden hangers is more expensive but


gives the store and its products a more up market feel. Carton hangers are a cheaper alternative, however if you market them showing customers, they are an eco- friendly alternative to plastic, it could work wonders for the brand image.


Another step would be to stop using plastic


packaging. Tags, strings and labels can all be produced using paper and card, even using vegetable dyes for branding to stop the use of harmful chemicals. We send all our products out in recyclable cardboard boxes using card labels. High street giant, Zara send out all their online deliveries in cardboard boxes or brown paper bags using tissue paper to protect the products. Ocean Refresh and Zara, being two ends of the scale from an independent to a global retailer, show that there is scope for any company to follow.


Being innovative, my circular business model for


Ocean Refresh is that we use recycled plastic that can be recycled again to create new products. We don’t add to the problem by creating new plastic, but we divert plastic that is already polluting our planet into products. Fabrics such as Polyester Yarn can be recycled to create new garments, but new fabrics can be created from sources such as industrial wood chip waste.


Our Company’s priority is to begin at the source and find suppliers and


factories that produce eco-friendly packaging and products. It can take time and a lot of research but the results to help our planet and, in turn, our customers are extremely worth it. I have worked alongside charities such as Route Global and Sequal; who are worldwide organisations that provide and encourage positive transformations for today’s planet. Both organisations arrange many beach clean ups, educational events and take part in worldwide discussions to help create a plan to help our ecosystem.


My main concern is that companies could take the time to educate


themselves and research into sustainable sources, but they don’t. I worry that companies brush these problems under the rug because they don’t want to invest money into solutions that might cost them more money. Sadly, I think a lot of retail giants are more concerned with how much profit they are making per item than the planet and our ecosystems. I believe if it was not for press and the eco-friendly market shaming companies in respect of the damage and the destruction they are doing to our planet, a lot of them may have still gone about their unethical ways.


My mission is to free our oceans from plastic waste. I want to see our


oceans and its ecosystems thrive. At Ocean Refresh, we aim to remove 2 million plastic bottles and pieces from our oceans by 2021.


SEPTEMBER 2020 • FOOTWEAR TODAY


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