Circular Economy
New Soma X Parley Bottle Latest Bid to Chip Away at Marine Plastic Pollution

Today, Soma and Parley for the Oceans announced their exclusive and limited-edition product for Starbucks; the world’s first reusable water bottle with a sleeve made using Parley Ocean PlasticTM, a material created from upcycled plastic intercepted from marine environments.

By Sustainable Brands | Published 6 years ago | About a 4 minute read

Image: Parley for the Oceans

Today, Soma and Parley for the Oceans announced their exclusive and limited-edition product for Starbucks; the world’s first reusable water bottle with a sleeve made using Parley Ocean PlasticTM, a material created from upcycled plastic intercepted from marine environments.

“Soma is excited to partner with Parley and Starbucks to support this movement to create change,” said Tal Chitayat, CEO of FC Brands, Soma’s parent company. “Every time you refill your Soma X Parley for the Oceans bottle, you are part of the solution to eliminate plastic waste.”

In the US alone, we throw away over 30 million plastic water bottles every year, with the majority ending up in landfills and oceans. The sleeve of each Soma x Parley for the Oceans bottle is made from the equivalent of two recycled plastic bottles intercepted from remote islands and coastal communities around the world. A portion of every sale goes to support initiatives of the Parley Ocean Plastic Program and implementation of the Parley AIR Strategy to Avoid, Intercept and Redesign plastic.

“Plastic is a design flaw. We cannot fix it overnight, but we can all take steps to create change," said Parley founder Cyrill Gutsch. “We’re collaborating with Soma to transform marine debris into a neoprene sleeve, bringing Ocean Plastic to a reusable Soma water bottle and directly into the hands of consumers. Shifting mindsets and behaviors is as important as creating new systems and materials. We all have a role to play. This bottle is another reminder of that fact and the beginning of a new collaboration in the movement for solutions.”

Transforming cosmetics packaging through collaboration

Join us as leading beauty retailer Ulta Beauty and Pact Collective share insights into how to maximize the transformative potential of partnerships, mentorship and pre-competitive alliances to overcome industry-wide challenges, reveal new solutions, and advance sustainability in materials and packaging for beauty and personal-care products - Tues, Oct. 15, at SB'24 San Diego.

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The Soma x Parley for the Oceans bottle is part of a limited edition run that launches in over 5,000 Starbucks stores in the US and Canada. Call your local Starbucks to inquire about availability.

Parley for the Oceans is a global network of innovators from creative industries, brands, governments and environmental groups working to raise awareness of the dangers our waste poses for the oceans and to collaborate on protective solutions. The organization has formed alliances with major corporations including adidas, Anheuser Busch InBev (Corona), Intel; the United Nations; and collaborators spanning the worlds of science, art, fashion, design, entertainment, sports, and space and ocean exploration.

To address the fast-growing threat of marine plastic pollution, Parley puts forth a flexible, scalable strategy: Parley AIR — Avoid, Intercept, Redesign. The organization gained global attention by rebranding sustainability into ‘Eco Innovation’, and through the invention of Ocean Plastic™: a range of premium materials created from upcycled plastic waste intercepted from oceans, shorelines and in coastal communities. The material provides a replacement for virgin plastic as well as a catalyst for awareness and funding of initiatives focused on longer-term, source-based solutions, including: Education and Communication, Direct Impact, Research and Development, and Eco Innovation.

The growing scourge of plastic in our oceans has rallied stakeholders from all sectors to collaborate on solutions. Among the latest are Closed Loop Partners’ Closed Loop Ocean initiative — whose collaborators include 3M, The Dow Chemical Company, Kimberly-Clark, PepsiCo and Procter & Gamble — which seeks to develop a new funding mechanism to prevent plastic from leaking into the world’s oceans; NextWave — an initiative launched by Dell, Lonely Whale, General Motors, Trek Bicycle, Interface, Van de Sant, Humanscale, Bureo and Herman Miller to develop the first-ever commercial-scale ocean-bound plastics supply chain; and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy initiative, whose 40+ corporate and nonprofit participants are working to create solutions from across the global plastic packaging value chain.