Dog next to plastic bottles on the ground

A Better Backyard

Ollie and rePurpose Global are teaming up to remove over 37,000 lbs of plastic waste from natural waterways in hard-to-reach communities.

Ollie x rePurpose Global logo lockup

Person in a yellow vest carries a large bag on a beach during a cleanup event, with others working in the background under a clear blue sky.

Project Paraíso de Ballenas

Project Paraíso de Ballenas is just one of the many impact projects led by rePurpose Global, a social enterprise that recovers nature-bound plastic waste through a worldwide network of waste management projects.

With Ollie’s support, the rePurpose Global team will remove about 37.5k lbs of plastic from a whale breeding ground on Colombia’s Pacific coast, Paraíso de Ballenas, or “Whale Paradise.”

This initiative is part of our shared commitment to sustainability and environmental stewardship and Ollie’s belief in creating a better, safer backyard for the next generations of humans and animals alike. 

37,500 lbs of plastic recovered

that’s equivalent to
Image showing pollution statistics: 60M straws, 2.8M shopping bags, 1.7M bottles, and 1.3M toothpaste tubes littering beaches.
Underwater view of plastic pollution, including bags, a can, and debris, floating in a blue ocean environment.

Thinking outside (and inside) the box

The world’s plastic problem is as complex as its solution. Even with the incredible efforts of groups like rePurpose Global, we still have a long way to go in tackling plastic pollution as consumers, businesses, and environmental stewards. Ollie’s Chief Impact Officer, Mia Davis , shares her thoughts on plastics’ challenges and Ollie's role as a brand that both uses plastic and has meaningful sustainability commitments.

Woman kneeling by a dog on a porch, holding a box labeled "Ollie." A potted plant and red door are in the background.

Your membership matters

Your purchase of Ollie products helps fund initiatives like the Project Paraíso de Ballenas cleanup and create a healthier environment for communities, wildlife, and pets.

Stacked, compressed plastic bottles and waste materials, bound together, suggesting recycling or waste management processes.

Why here? Why now?

and more questions about this Impact Project.

Ollie’s products are sold in the US, and at the end of use, our empty packaging is collected here, too. But plastic waste is a connected, global issue. For example, the US is the world’s biggest plastic polluter. Many packaging types/formats can’t be recycled via curbside collection bins in the US–including our plastic films and bags. The US exports large volumes of plastic waste, often to developing countries that lack the waste management infrastructure capacity to deal with their own domestic waste and where waste is most at risk of leaking into nature.  And when plastic ends up in the ocean, as it so often does, it affects us all. 

We chose to partner with rePurpose on the project in Colombia because it is where the organization needs support right now and because of Ollie’s love for animals, including the species of whales breeding in the Pacific off the coast of Buenaventura.

Worker in high-visibility gear collects plastic waste on a littered beach, surrounded by greenery and debris.

How do you know the recovered plastic would’ve ended up as pollution? Why isn’t it collected in curbside bins?

rePurpose Global collects plastic waste from the environment–rivers, streams, bays and the ocean–where it is harming animals and communities. It is already plastic pollution.  In places where plastic recovery rates are low (e.g., below 20%), plastic ends up being illegally dumped, burned, or polluting the environment. That is when rePurpose Global steps in.

What kind of plastic is recovered?

Every kind of plastic can be found in the environment. But the short answer: low-value plastic. Low-value plastic (LVP) is any plastic (often mixed types of plastic fused together) where the cost of collecting and processing the plastic waste is higher than the money made from selling the recovered plastic material. For example, some projects collect PET plastic bottles in areas with no immediate recycling market, so if there is no end buyer,  even PET bottles would have no value for waste pickers.

A humpback whale breaching the ocean surface, with its body partially out of the water against a clear blue sky.

What happens to the plastic after it's recovered?

The plastic is sorted at a vetted facility (or two) to separate and aggregate each material. It's then bailed and safely transported to be processed (cleaned, pelletized, etc.) and recycled into new materials. rePurpose Global is also innovating in recycling traditionally non-recyclable plastics (think classrooms built from 'plastic wood'). Still, where such capacities are unavailable, the hardest-to-recycle plastics are used in co-processing, a more favorable environmental impact than ending up in landfills or incineration.

How do you know the projects are fair and safe for workers?

rePurpose Global projects run to high standards of fairness, safety, and social safeguarding. The standards, which include safe working conditions and fair pay, are laid out in the Impact Code, and all project teams are onboarded and trained to uphold these standards. The experts in the rePurpose Global Impact Projects team monitor compliance on an ongoing basis, and compliance is audited and verified by independent auditors twice a year.

Beach cleanup comparison: Top image shows a littered beach with debris; bottom image shows the same beach significantly cleaner with less trash.

Who is rePurpose Global?

rePurpose Global is the world’s leading Plastic Action Platform, bringing together brands, consumers, innovators, and policymakers to combat the plastic waste crisis collectively. With pioneering solutions across the circular economy value chain, the organization has helped more than 500 companies measure, reduce, and take action on plastic waste while driving systems change on a global scale. rePurpose Global's Impact Projects have recovered over 70 million lb of plastic waste from the environment to date, protecting vulnerable coastal regions across the Americas, Africa, and Asia. In doing so, the organization has enabled the delivery of waste management services to millions of people worldwide while positively impacting the lives of thousands of marginalized waste workers.