Ocean Bottle

Ocean Bottle was founded by Will Pearson and Nick Doman in 2018 to empower individual consumers in the fight against plastic ocean waste. The company funds plastic collection in coastal communities, with 11.4 kilograms of plastic collected for each Ocean Bottle sold. The plastic collectors are able to exchange the waste they collect for money and get access to other social resources. Ocean Bottle has funded the collection of 11,400 tonnes of plastic so far, the equivalent of over one billion plastic bottles in weight. The company’s own bottles are made of recyclable stainless steel and recycled ocean-bound plastic. Each bottle has an embedded NFC enabled smart-chip, allowing bottle owners to further fund plastic collection by tracking refills on the Ocean Bottle app.

Through the mentorship opportunities offered by the Lead2030 programme, Will and his team have been introduced to employees from the challenge sponsor who work on banking solutions. The challenge sponsor also supported Ocean Bottle in producing a full analysis of its marketing collateral for business-to-business customers, and provided feedback to ensure the material is optimised for Ocean Bottle’s strategic priorities.

Ocean Bottle is using the funding from Lead2030 to scope out a public facing audit for its collection data, the first time such an audit will be conducted in the ocean waste collection industry. This will help establish industry compliance standards, but also assist Ocean Bottle in becoming as transparent as possible, communicate its success, and continue to lead the plastic collection space. Ocean Bottle’s Lead2030 challenge sponsor has provided support in communicating, framing, and publishing the audit's process and results of the audit to Ocean Bottle’s community.

“I think it's been just a big confidence boost for us to have support for doing things and taking decisions that we're not really comfortable or didn't have full confidence in taking. So they've been really reassuring, and I think a big part that explains that is that they've been really supportive and reactive on communication. So I think it's been really positive to work with them.” - Emilien Henrotte, Impact Manager at Ocean Bottle

3,400 tonnes of plastic collected in 2023