What's Next for Plastic Bottles?

After last weeks post on clothing companies' effort to expand their business through social responsibility, I recalled an ad that I came across in a magazine over the summer. In this post, I would like to expand upon Billabong's efforts that I mentioned briefly in the prior posting.

When Billabong began to participate in Project Blue's campaign, they sought to impact the global environmental community through reducing the number of plastic water bottles in landfills. In order to do so, they devised a method to create board shorts out of recycled textiles and plastic. The end result... 10 plastic bottles are used to create every one pair of shorts, thus creating 100% recycled polyester boardshorts.

After the release of these shorts, along with a vivid ad campaign to match, Surfd (an online surfing magazine ) felt the need to create a review of the shorts knowing the fact that they were created from plastic. Their first thought... stiff with much rash to come (softly put). Their first impression... "really soft... If angels wear feather boardies in wave heaven then I reckon they’d feel something like this." In the end, they passed the comfort and style test demanded by the editors.


As far as the effectiveness of the print ads go, they have been creative and portrayed in the right context. The first picture portrays the message of plastic bottles floating in water, but a solution... the shorts the model has on. The second picture, shorts as one in nature with a wooden fence and much greenery. As far as publicity goes on Billabong's part, I felt that when I searched and looked over their website there was very few about their co-op with Project Blue, along with any effort on their new innovative eco collection. I feel I found more information by searching the internet and from secondary sources, than their own webpage.

All in all, I think this innovative concept of helping the environment through production is brilliant.