EcoPlum Shines a Spotlight on its B Corp Suppliers: Ocean Bottle Makes Waves and Turns the Tide on Plastic

This is the sixth profile in our blogpost series about our B Corp suppliers.

It’s not every day that a sustainably produced, reusable water bottle becomes a symbol of hope for the oceans. Yet that’s exactly what Ocean Bottle has managed to do—turn something as simple as staying hydrated into a global movement against plastic pollution. With every sleek, color-blocked bottle sold, the company funds the collection of thousands of ocean-bound plastic bottles, which helps create jobs in coastal communities and clean up our oceans, the planet’s most vital resource.

The Mission and Measure of Success

Ocean Bottle is a certified B Corporation on a mission to reduce demand for single-use plastic bottles and invest in the cleanup of existing plastic pollution at its source. The business wants to prevent 7 billion plastic bottles from entering the ocean—a very big goal! Every bottle or flask sold by Ocean Bottle funds plastic bottle removal efforts in ocean communities around the world.

In 2024, Ocean Bottle allocated 15% of its revenue to funding plastic collection efforts, which diverged over 17.6 million pounds of ocean-bound plastic. Since launching in 2019, the company has prevented over 45 million pounds from reaching our oceans.

What Inspired the Company’s Launch?

In 2018, Nick Doman and William Pearson founded Ocean Bottle in the UK, after meeting at London Business School where they connected over their passion for the environment. Pearson's  inspiration to help solve the ocean plastic crisis came about after he traveled at sea in the Indian Ocean, where he saw an island of trash in the Maldives called Thilafushi. The devastation caused by this mass of ocean plastic made him want to do something to mitigate the problem and start a business to help solve the ocean plastic problem. Nick had a background in venture capital but was driven by his interest in building a company with an impact business model. The two clicked over creating Ocean Bottle.

After finding a water bottle from the UK on a pristine stretch of beach in Bali, Nick Doman wrote about what that bottle’s journey meant to him in a publication called the European:  

“Because the second something enters the sea it becomes global. No longer contained by geography, country borders, or national laws, a piece of litter enters the ocean and becomes both everyone’s problem, and no one’s. And for those who try to take responsibility, there are often enormous frustrations.” 

The Four Impact Pillars

In its goal to prevent billions of plastic bottles from entering the ocean, Ocean Bottle is propelled by four impact pillars:

• Ocean Health
• Climate Action
• Social Good
• Closing the Loop

What Makes Ocean Bottle Unique?

Innovative Sustainable Design

The innovative, award-winning Ocean Bottle line of drinkware was designed in Norway in collaboration with K8 Design. It took over a year to create an aesthetic look for the products. They incorporated sustainability into the production of them and produced durable products with versatility and long-term use in mind. The bottles incorporate a modular design with two openings.

Ocean Bottle products are made from recycled 18/8 food grade stainless steel, BPA free plastic, silicone rubber, and recycled ocean-bound plastic. The bottles feature a double wall vacuum that keeps drinks hot for up to 18 hours and cold for up to 24 hours.

A Circular Solution Benefit

While reusable bottles replace a lot of plastic, Ocean Bottle has created the additional sustainable benefit of creating their bottles with a minimum of 67% recycled materials and every one of their products can be disassembled for recycling. This is a true circular solution, when all the materials in a product can be recycled and reused in the economy as inputs for other products. The company offers free replacement parts for the life of the product, too.

They Don’t Forget Packaging

The company's product packaging is made with FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) recycled cardboard and 100% plastic-free materials. 

Ocean Bottle App

Each bottle is embedded with a smart chip that allows owners to register it to the Ocean Bottle Mobile App to further fund the collection of ocean-bound plastic (for free) each time a refill is registered. Users of the app can track refills easily. Each refill funds the collection of five plastic bottles before they reach the ocean. This is a very novel way to engage consumers and reinforce behavior so they can easily gauge the impact of using a reusable bottle for daily hydration needs.

Sustainable Manufacturing

Ocean Bottle products are responsibly manufactured in China. Their factory follows fair labor practices and has one of the highest SEDEX ratings and certifications among its competitors.

SEDEX is a global technology company that offers solutions for supply chain due diligence and continuous improvement. The business specializes in data, insights and professional services to empower supply chain sustainability. They provide scalable and site-specific capabilities for efficient, in-depth analysis on social and environmental practices globally.

B Corp Certified: Tackling Plastic Pollution with Every Bottle Sale

Like other purpose-driven B Corporations (B Corp), Ocean Bottle uses its business as a force for good. Its motivation for becoming a B Corp was to broadcast and hold itself accountable for its social and environmental commitments—not just through marketing but via a credible, traceable external standard. The company attained its first B Corp Certification in 2020 and was recertified in 2023, with a 24% increase in its impact score from 86.9 to 107.5. To gain certification, a company must score at least 80. For more about the company’s B Corp status read here.

The Ocean Bottle Values Chain: Giving Back

Every bottle or flask that Ocean Bottle sells funds the equivalent removal of 1,000 ocean-bound plastic bottles in weight, equating to about 25 pounds. Their success is measurable in the fight against plastic!

Ocean Bottle invests with the following partner organizations to collect plastic and reduce plastic pollution in oceans around the world.

• Plastic Bank, one of the first organizations to collect plastic in impoverished communities and make it traceable operating in Indonesia, Brazil, Egypt, and the Philippines.
• Plastics for Change, which provides community action at the grassroots level mostly in India.
• rePurpose Global, a company that collects hard to recycle plastics with a focus on collectors’ welfare in India, Indonesia, Ghana, and Kenya.
• CleanHub, an organization that builds data-driven waste management systems with a focus on collecting low-value, non-recyclable plastic in vulnerable areas. CleanHub addresses the gap in traditional recycling models.

Working with its partner organizations, Ocean Bottle helps support plastic collectors in coastal communities dealing with the ocean plastic crisis around the world. Ocean Bottle tracks its sales and the corresponding plastic removal data via their partner companies with sophisticated collection and data sharing systems. Collection projects are targeted based on impact and how investments can improve the individual collectors’ lives in many areas like regulating wages, collecting different types of plastic, and enabling workers to access social support. The partner organizations provide a means for plastic collectors to exchange plastic for money or for family necessities, such as products, food, healthcare, or microfinance.

The types of plastic collected through these projects are high-value ones–PET, PP, LDPE, and HDPE. Once collected, the plastic is recycled into flakes and pellets that can then be used in new products. Low-value plastics are turned into energy subsidies.

EcoPlum Sustainable Swag® Business Gift Bottles from Ocean Bottle

If you’re in the business of providing promotional merchandise or choosing branded gifts for clients, partners, or events, then Ocean Bottle is worth your attention. Plan ahead for the upcoming holidays with customized bottles that showcase your corporate brand and the sustainable values you’d like to support. EcoPlum® offers a variety of Ocean Bottle sizes and colors. Logo engraving and color printing services are included.

750ml ORIGINAL OCEAN BOTTLE - 26oz—15 colors

Ocean Bottle Brew - 12oz—3 colors

Ocean Bottle Original - 17oz—5 colors

Ocean Bottle Original - 34oz – 6 colors

Ocean Bottle is a brand that spurs us to take action and track our progress when fighting plastic pollution. The business states this about its mission to stop 7 billion plastic bottles from entering the ocean,

“Alone, we are just a drop in the ocean. But together, we can bring about a sea of change.”

And so EcoPlum salutes Ocean Bottle.

Editors’ Note:

EcoPlum is a B Corporation and distributor of sustainable promotional products, including the featured products by Ocean Bottle.

Contact Us:https://ecoplum.com/contact