To do something about plastic soup at the source and to reduce the number of plastic bottles used, we inspire to use an attractive reusable drinking bottle. The consumer will get rid of their habit of purchasing single-use bottles. Retulp was founded in 2014 to fulfil this mission. Take your own bottle because there is no excuse for single use! By using Retulp drinking bottles, you help ensure that the enormous mountain of plastic waste doesn’t become even bigger.
Retulp is business supporter of WWF plastic free sea project. Every year millions of animals die because of plastic. Read more
In 2022, we started to work together with Club Kakatua to realise a trash barrier in a river in Indonesia every year: Read more
Merijn Tinga fights against disposable plastic in his own great way. Here Merijn hands over his book to Retulp. Read more
Over the past 7 years Retulp has ensured that almost 100 million litres of clean drinking water have been donated to developing countries. Read more
Since 2015, founder Richard Gabriel has been a volunteer with SFF and in addition Retulp donates products to this wonderful foundation. Read more
Even locally in our own environment here in the Veluwe, we organise playful campaigns with the aim of combating litter. Read more
Support one of the great initiatives below, just like Retulp, to do something against the enormous increasing mountain of waste plastic. It is also easy to take action against single-use plastic yourself.
If we want to solve the plastic crisis, we have to get rid of the throw-away culture. Yet companies with plastic-shine solutions are perpetuating this culture. The real solution is packaging that is refillable or reusable. Recycling, bio-plastics and paper instead of plastic are false solutions.
Mock solution: recycling
Companies and governments hammer recycling into our heads as THE solution. A part of the plastic waste that citizens collect separately, ends up in countries like Malaysia or can end up – even within the EU – on illegal landfills. There is hardly any recycling. Since China closed its doors to the import of waste plastic in 2018, the problems of recycling have been piling up. The main causes: the amount of waste plastic continues to increase, there is too little recycling capacity and trade is not controlled. As a result, most plastic ends up in landfills or in the environment. Just because something is recyclable doesn’t mean it will be. More than 90% of all plastic produced has never been recycled. If plastic is recycled, it is usually ‘downcycled’. It is constantly being transformed into a lower quality product until it ends up in an incinerator.
Mock solution: Paper
McDonalds replacing its plastic straws with paper ones, clothes shops giving you a paper bag instead of a plastic one; more and more companies are replacing their plastic disposable products with paper. There is not nearly enough recycled paper to meet the enormous demand. As a result, an enormous amount of forest is being cut down worldwide for the production of packaging, tissues and toilet paper. If companies start replacing their plastic packaging with paper, the pressure on our forests will increase even more.
Mock solution: bio-plastics
Think of the crunchy bags around organic peppers that say they are compostable, or Coca-Cola’s ‘plant bottle’. But what exactly is bioplastic? Bio-plastics are plastics made from natural raw materials, such as maize, whereas ‘normal’ plastic is made from oil. And some of these bioplastics are compostable. But even compostable bio-plastics only break down under the right (industrial) conditions. In nature, bio-plastics behave just like ‘normal plastic’. A turtle will suffocate in them just as well.
So what is to be done?
The underlying problem is our disposable culture. We use a plastic package for a few seconds, while it is made to last for hundreds of years. If we really want to solve this problem, we have to start looking differently at how we deliver and use products. Companies play a crucial role in this. They keep the throw-away culture going by focusing on the above-mentioned false solutions. While the real solution is at hand: packaging that is refillable or reusable.
As a consumer, we can overcome this problem easily and efficiently. Together we can change and make a difference! We would like to share a few tips with you:
The Dutch brand Retulp’s drinking bottles are made out of partially recycled stainless steel. Starting from 50 pieces, they are even available with their own logo or text. The thermoses and sports bottles have a stylish design and are available in a number of timeless colours. Contributing to a cleaner environment can be done in style. All bottles, thermoses and sports bottles are food safe and BPA free.
When you buy a Retulp bottle, you make sure that someone else, somewhere in this world drinks with you. In 2017, Retulp donated 12 million litres of clean drinking water to people in Africa and Indonesia. In 2018, it was 14 million litres and in 2019, we are going for 19 million litres of water. The donations are invested in water projects that are executed by: Amref Flying Doctors, the Red Cross, Simavi and World Vision and this is all checked by Aqua for All.
Our bottles aren’t just good for you and for someone else, they are also good for the planet. The only way to combat the increasing number of disposable bottles, cups and cans, is to use your own reusable bottle. Prevention is much, much better than recycling. Our eco-friendly drinking bottles allow you to spread a sustainable message and make a clear statement in order to prevent plastic waste. Why encourage reuse: https://retulp.nl/plastic-soup/
In the Guilty Plastic Pleasures section, Retulpers confess which single-use plastics they still use when they know there is an alternative. Retulp believes in a world without single-use plastics and offers alternatives, but they are still ‘guilty’ of using indisposables sometimes. This doesn’t mean that, if you use one sustainable alternative, you have to start living without plastic entirely. Take a small step in the right direction!
Retulp has been supplying sustainable drinking bottles and thermos flasks as an alternative to disposable bottles and cups since 2015. From this autumn, the range will be expanded to include more products that will help reduce waste. New thermos cups and lunch products that are easy to use and have an attractive design.
Cristiane and Coby started working for Retulp in July with the aim of bringing these new products to the European market and designing even more new products. Below is a short introduction of both of them.
MVO Nederland
Social Enterprise NL
GroeneZaken