What is Certified Ocean Bound Plastic?

When we reformulated our product last year we were fortunate to find an incredible new raw material on the market. It met our needs for our Mealboxes and it is also the world’s first Certified Ocean Bound Plastic. Ocean Bound Plastic sounds pretty awesome, right - but nearly everyone asks us the same question ‘what does that mean’ so this month we’re here to myth bust our new materials and why we chose them.

If there is one thing we really hate at RePlated, it's greenwashing. Claims like Ocean Bound Plastic sound grand but we know that this particular term has had some pretty average press previously. One thing we love is transparency, so let's unpack this one a bit and get you up to speed on OBP (doesn’t really roll off the tongue does it?).

Why are you using Ocean Bound Plastic?

Recycled plastic is what we always want to use - we believe there is enough plastic in the world already thank you very much, but plastic is also a very useful material that is incredibly lightweight, and versatile. Single-use plastic is an abomination, but as our governments (at last) restrict its availability, we think we still have a responsibility to make (re)use of what is already out there in our environment for quite some time to come.

The undeniable convenience and practicality of plastic is the main reason why people produce 381 million tonnes of plastic waste a year, an estimated 14 million tonnes of which enters our ocean. Stopping waste from entering the ocean is a really fantastic way not just to have a recycled product, but to be of genuine benefit to preventing ocean pollution.

We searched the world to find the absolute best material available and this Ocean Bound Plastic fit the bill and we believe it is an important part of cleaning our oceans and waterways, particularly in the developing world.

“By investing in ocean-bound plastic as a material source of products, companies are demonstrating that the material has commercial value, can be put into products and can help tell a story to customers, spread education and share information.” (Kendall Starkman - Next Wave Plastics Foundation)

How is this plastic collected?

Ocean bound plastic is plastic that is collected up to 50km from the ocean, in waterways, by the side of waterways and on streets.

In the case of our material it is from Malaysia. In Malaysia and Indonesia (and other parts of Asia as well) there are large communities of informal rubbish collection. Nearly 60% of the worlds recycling is collected by rubbish pickers. This collection provides income to people above the low wage rates they could otherwise achieve. This collection also fills a gap for waste recovery that governments in these regions are unable to. The collection of rubbish for the purposes of recycling provides economic security and often they can earn well above minimum wage. For these collectors, manufactures - the more businesses that prioritise the use of these kind of recycled materials, the sooner we will clean up those waterways and provide well paid work.

Rescuing plastic waste before it goes into our oceans is incredibly important. So we are proud that our reusable takeaway container is not only recycled, it is genuinely saving problematic plastic from entering the ocean.

How can you trust this material?

As a BCorp we have a high standard for ensuring our supply chain is ethical and transparent - but rather than relying on that we want to talk about the specifics a bit.

The two places we have trust are in its ENVIRONMENTAL credentials - in that it is what it says it is and in its SOCIAL credentials - so that the inherent risks of exploitation in a product that uses third party collection for example are verified.

The Ocean Bound Plastic we use for our Mealboxes at RePlated is a CERTIFIED OCEAN BOUND PLASTIC certified by Zero Plastic Oceans. This also means it is fully traceable from collection point.

There are other certifications including GRS (Global Recycling Standard) which prove the material is recycled.

The main certification we build trust in the product for the SOCIAL side is through its certification with SMETA. It also means that the whole supply chain is paid fairly. In essence this certification is similar to the fair trade certifications for food. As the Next Wave Plastics Framework is rolled out we would expect a similar level of transparency for all plastic of this kind.

To give you an idea of wages from the data in this study we see that informal waste collectors in Malaysia can earn up to 3x minimum wage, with complete freedom to choose their hours and days of work with no ‘boss’ you can see why it is an attractive opportunity. To also put these workers in context - 20 million people make their living this way globally and they are responsible for 60% of the worlds’ recycling.

Why aren’t you using an Australian made plastic - surely there is enough plastic here?

This blog is getting really long and this is a big enough question to be a whole new article. However, we will try to be brief!

In 2018 when the National Sword policy was implemented in China they stopped importing the world’s recycling. Rightly, they said that the rest of the world (including Australia) needed to start recycling locally and dealing with our own waste ourselves.

This crisis did not provoke meaningful policy change in Australia straight away, but we now have a 2030 Waste Action Plan and a Recycling Modernisation fund of $190M to address the multiple failures of the current system for circularity. However for now, despite the enormous amount of waste plastic we produce, there is no commercially available food grade recycled plastic fully made in Australia!

Some of the biggest producers of single-use waste (beverage manufacturers) have developed their own closed loop systems alongside return & earn but unfortunately the materials produced by these initiatives are not something small producers like us can access yet. The product we used previously was ‘finished’ in Australia but also imported from Asia.

We are incredibly proud of our product so far, but there is still work to be done. For example, we are working this year to add the traceability of our materials to our packaging so you can see exactly where the plastic in your Mealbox came from. In the meantime though, be assured that when you buy, use and accept a RePlated Mealbox you are making the best choice for the environment.