The Plastic Dilemma
Plastic is sort of everyone’s problem. The people who make it, the people who sell it, the people who use it, the people who dispose of it, the people who collect it, the people who find alternatives to it. Certainly the wildlife that eat and get entangled in it.We aim to do our bit too and not fall asleep at the wheel (which we have invented) as the future comes screaming along and pummels us in the face. We need to get ready for change by being part of the revolution.
The Challenge
Humans are pretty fantastic. Since we bashed a few things together and made fire in our cave dwelling days, we have been on a bit of a roll with inventions (including the wheel, as it happens).Plastic is arguably up there with antibiotics and margaritas in the league table of our best and most useful of human endeavours. It is a strong, lightweight, and mouldable magic material used in thousands of products that add comfort, convenience, and safety to our everyday lives.Unfortunately, we have invented something that lasts for 450 years that we often only use a few times. Oops.
The Future
PICTURE THIS! It’s bath-time in 2075. I am submerged in delicate rainwater from the fabulous Ninja 5000 water collection device on my roof. I think ‘TREACLEMOON’ and the chip implanted in my brain purchases a globule of delicious gel which is immediately transported via solar fuelled drone to be decanted into my open hand. I think ‘thank you drone’. The drone emits a rainbow in response and flies back out of the window. No packaging required. I hologram myself to my grandchildren to tell them about how we used to use plastic ‘back in my day’.They blush and tell me to get dressed as they are at school. Silly Grandma. Unfortunately we have some time to wait for huge, game-changing alternatives to get our products happily to you. We need a short-term solution.
Meet our new bottle!
We’ve been working on other ways to make our shower gel bottle kinder to the environment. Ocean plastic waste is devastating and we learned that it actually isn’t possible to recycle ocean plastic (this being because it’s now contaminated), we knew we needed to think outside the box. Together with our clever team plus a few bees, gnomes and unicorns, we found a team in South East Asia who stop plastic waste in its tracks, this being key waterways, before it reaches the ocean – we call this ‘Prevented Ocean Plastic’ and this is now used to make up 100% of our treaclemoon bottle! TAH DAH!
So... WHY Prevented Ocean Plastic? Swishing our magic wand and removing plastic from our world is not the answer, but managing how we use and reuse it is. So far our bottles have been made with 2 million plastic bottles bound for the ocean!Prevented Ocean Plastic is the largest program of its kind, preventing over 1,000 tonnes of plastic from entering the ocean every month. Once a bottle has been in the ocean, it is too late. The salt and sun degrade the plastic making it largely unusable for recycling. Recycled plastic is washed, decontaminated and tested to ensure it adheres to EU standards for packaging. The main reason new plastic sells more than recycled plastic is because it is cheaper, not because it is better quality.
"Everyone wants to be the hero pulling plastic out of the water but the best approach and return on investment is to stop it from getting in the water in the first place" - Robert Goodwin, Co-Founder OceanCycle.
Take the pledge to choose recycled and learn more about Prevented Ocean Plastic: https://www.preventedoceanplastic.com/
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