British entrepreneur hopes to fight plastic pollution

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01:30

A British entrepreneur is hoping to help fight plastic pollution in oceans, by developing a water bottle made from paper which will break down within hours, leaving no harmful substances.

Concerned by the millions of tons of plastic waste found in oceans, 27 year old chemistry graduate James Longcroft began to develop a plastic-free water bottle at his kitchen table. He said it took six months before he came up with something that even resembled a bottle.

A plastic-free water bottle developed by the British entrepreneur James Longcroft. /FSN Photo

The result of his hard work is a bottle made from recycled paper which has a waterproof liner made from a secret combination of biodegradable material. Longcroft told CGTN the bottle developed for his company "Choose Water" will fully decompose in the ocean within three weeks and is harmless to marine life.

“It has very little effect and no effect on microorganism or aquatic life, doesn’t turn into micro plastics and things like that which ends up starving smaller aquatic organisms and then gets into the food chain. So ours has no impact on the marine environments at all. In landfill it does take slightly longer because it doesn’t have the abundance of water and micro-bacterial but it will, again, break down.”

The bottle was made from recycled paper which has a waterproof liner made from a secret combination of biodegradable material. /FSN Photo

Longcroft demonstrated his invention to CGTN on the banks of the River Thames in London. Within minutes of the bottle being washed around by the waves, the hard paper case began to soften and fall away. Within 10 minutes the bottle had turned to mush. Longcroft said the cap is made from untreated steel so will rust down to iron oxide which is naturally occurring in oceans.

Within minutes of the bottle being washed around by the waves, the hard paper case began to soften and fall away. /FSN Photo

After a successful kick-starter campaign in which he raised 50,000 US dollars and rising, Longcroft hopes to ramp up production of the bottles through the purchase of specially modified machinery. He aims to have the first Choose Water bottles for sale in UK shops by the end of the year.

He told CGTN he is hopeful his bottles will be competitively priced against existing water bottle brands.

“We use recycled paper which is quite cheap and everything else in it, because it’s all natural and sustainable, it’s not that expensive to make. So from an energy point of view it’s very cheap and from a materials point of view it’s very cheap as well,” he added, “Obviously as we grow, with economies of scale and as we can get bigger production, we hope to get it down to the price of a plastic bottle as well.”

The bottle had turned to mush within 10 minutes. /FSN Photo

The “Choose Water” company donates all its profits to Water for Africa charity, which works to fund clean water projects in Africa. Longcoft said he anticipates continuing to support the charity even as the company endeavors to bring the Choose Water bottles to market in the UK.