Ecover ocean plastic

Cleaning brand Ecover is launching a limited-edition washing-up liquid bottle made with ‘ocean plastic’. 

The bottles, available from Waitrose exclusively from the beginning of October, are made from fully recycled plastic, with 10% of this sourced from ‘ocean plastic’ from 10,000 bottles collected in Amsterdam canals. The brand produced a similar limited-edition pack last year, but is now rolling out 78,000 washing-up liquid bottles - more than four times the 17,000 launched 12 months ago.

‘Ocean plastic’ refers to plastic retrieved from rivers, canals and the sea.

“We’re beyond the point where we want our packaging to be ‘less bad’- we want it to be positively better for the world,” said Ecover head of European innovation Tom Domen. “We need to rethink recycling and get serious about creating a circular economy.” 

Head of sustainability for Waitrose Quentin Clark said: “Plastic is an amazing material in the right place. The ‘ocean plastic’ bottle is a step to remove plastic from the wrong place - our oceans.”

Ecover claims to have used 2.5 tonnes of ‘ocean plastic’ during the past two years.