Waste Free Oceans Announces Partnership with Henkel

Waste Free Oceans, an organization dedicated to removing plastic from oceans and rivers, has announced a partnership with Henkel, the German chemical and consumer goods company. The two companies have partnered to create bottles for Henkel’s Lovables laundry brand out of recycled marine plastic.

“Oceans and rivers are among the most expansive and diverse resources on Earth, but we don’t protect them as well as we should,” said Bernard Merkx, co-founder of Waste Free Oceans, in a statement. “An estimated 8 million tonnes of plastic end up in our oceans every year, which is the equivalent of 15 grocery bags filled with plastic for every meter of coastline in the world. At Waste Free Oceans, our answer is to enter into partnerships to tackle this problem together. We’re now delighted to be working with Henkel and organizing remediation actions together: It’s our largest and most ambitious partnership with one unique partner so far—aiming to remove enough marine litter from the environment to produce 100 tonnes of usable recycled material every year for at least three years.”

The two companies will begin by collecting plastic from the Danube River in spring 2018, and collection will also take place at several locations in the Mediterranean Sea during the summer.

“Our partnership with Waste Free Oceans is another step forward in our commitment to promoting sustainable packaging and recycling,” said Prof. Dr. Thomas Müller-Kirschbaum, head of global research and development for Henkel’s Laundry & Home Care business unit, in a statement. “Together, we can remove a meaningful amount of plastic from the environment, while also raising consumer awareness of marine plastic litter and the need to better protect our oceans and rivers.”