Waste Free Oceans foundation and German consumer goods manufacturer Henkel AG have entered a partnership to use plastic waste collected from waterways in manufacturing bottles for the Lovables laundry brands.
WFO, which collects and upcycles floating ocean plastic, said the collaboration was the largest it had agreed so far and will run for at least three years.
Together, the partners aim to remove enough plastic from rivers, lakes, seas and oceans to produce 100 tonnes of usable recycled material each year.
Waste Free Oceans was founded in 2011 with the mission of partnering with businesses and other organisations to remove plastic from the world's oceans and rivers – and transform it into new items.
The WFO partnership with Henkel will begin by collecting plastic waste from the Danube river in spring 2018.
Activities will target locations ranging from Bulgaria through to Hungary and Romania.
The locations, said WFO, were selected based on a detailed analysis of the way the currents and geography of the river cause plastic to accumulate at certain points.
Volunteers and fishermen will collect the waste from river banks, beaches and the water.
The collections along the Danube will be followed by activities at several locations in the Mediterranean Sea during the summer.
Once recycled, the plastic will be included in bottles for the Lovables laundry brand, which was launched earlier this year.
Lovables bottles are made from 100% recycled material – and the brand aims to include recycled marine plastic litter from WFO in over a million bottles.