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Packaging
Ecover's "innovation triple" will
use plastic sea-sourced waste in its
manufacturing process
Ecover trials ocean
plastic waste 'trawls'
Ecover has raised the bar in closed loop
packaging by creating a recycled polymer mix for its bottles that will incorporate plastic waste fished out of the ocean.
In a world first, from 2014 Ecover bottles will be manufactured from a mixture 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 fossilresourced 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
standard practice by continually investing in such trail-blazing initiatives.
"We want to create green products that
deliver more than just a nod in the direction of sustainability … and we want to
inspire others to do the same," he maintained.
Ecover will work in partnership with plastics 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
