Photo credit: TheOceanCleanup

DNV GL announced the launch of the first product bearing its new standard for use of recovered ocean plastic. The product is sunglasses made from recycled plastic collected from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) by the Ocean Cleanup project, led by Dutch entrepreneur Boyan Slat. The standard is a result of a collaboration between certification body DNV GL and the Ocean Cleanup and provides a means for companies to demonstrate to their customers that their products are recycled from ocean plastic. In this case, the certification body certified that 95% of the sunglasses’ frames developed by the Ocean Cleanup are made from plastic recycled from GPGP.

The standard aims to uphold the integrity of products by ensuring that the recycled plastics are not mixed with materials from other sources.  Companies must also be able to demonstrate the sources of the plastic. Depending on the location, DNV GL uses physical or remote audits to certify the products and work is ongoing to examine how blockchain can be used to ensure the immutability of the recorded data, as per the press release. The standard is publicly available to any company wishing to use a third party to demonstrate their products are made from plastic recycled from rivers, lakes or oceans.

“Extracting plastic is only the first step in addressing a serious threat to our oceans and rivers. Turning trash into treasures is critical to fund further cleanup. With trillions of pieces of plastic in our oceans, a dramatic scaling of extraction is needed. Certification builds trust into the authenticity of the reclaimed plastic and new products made from it,” said Luca Crisciotti, CEO of DNV GL-Business Assurance.  

All proceeds from the sale of the sunglasses will be used by the Ocean Cleanup to continue their mission to rid the oceans of plastic.

“We started work with The Ocean Cleanup almost 2 years ago to build a thorough understanding of the process and need before designing the standard. For everything to come full circle and finally see the garbage turn into a pair of sunglasses made from certified reclaimed plastic is extremely rewarding,” said Crisciotti.