Spotlight: Winter & Company
Sometimes a book’s greatest story can be found not within its pages but on its cover. In the case of this snazzy, unputdownable notebook from Winter & Company, that cover represents plastic bottles plucked from the water before they could further add to the devastating pollution choking our oceans today. Made from Toile Ocean, the first book cloth woven from recycled ocean plastic, this notebook’s cover might just change the way you approach your clients’ quest for sustainability.
Produced in collaboration with Swiss up-cycling company Tide Ocean SA (#tide), Toile Ocean is a lot more versatile than any fabric recycled from salvaged plastics has any right to be, while also boasting an unforgettable, tantalizing texture.
The secret: a process used to transform 5.2 half-liter polyethylene tetraphyte (PET) bottles fished from the oceans into 1 square meter of Toile Ocean fabric.
Toile Ocean: From Flotsam to Printable Fabric
The numbers are staggering. Some 8 million tons of plastic are dumped into our oceans each year; the environmental toll is incalculable. For years Tide Ocean has specialized in collecting and sorting ocean-bound plastic in Southeast Asia where the problem has reached critical levels. That waste is then transported to Switzerland in a carbon-neutral way.
From there the plastic waste is compressed into tiny granules using solar power and spun into yarn, that Winter & Company then weaves into Toile Ocean fabric. Not only does it remove harmful plastics from the environment, but also, for every meter of Toile Ocean sold, 1% is donated to clean water projects.
The result: a versatile product woven with 74% recycled plastic textile – (55% ocean plastics and 45% post-consumer waste PET). The remaining 26% consists of a water-based acrylic coating required to seal the open texture of the textile to make Toile Ocean waterproof.
An Attention-Grabbing Material
A naturally mottled fabric, Toile Ocean provides your work a high-quality texture that looks as unique as it feels. Offset and screen printing friendly, you can also add hot foil stamping for a truly sophisticated look.
While book covers are probably the most obvious application, it’s also perfect for:
- Premium packaging
- Labels and hangtags
- Carrier and shopping bags
- Stationery
- Menu cards
and so much more.
The look it brings to your work makes it the ideal material to use when going for that natural, refined appearance. It’s available in 6 appealing colors:
- Plage
- Ciel
- Algue
- Galet
- Fleur Del Sel
- Corail Rouge
Toile Ocean’s recycled-plastic pedigree also fits nicely into Winter & Company’s Winter Wrup-Cycling upcycling process. This initiative, which began with the recycling of tannery waste into luxurious leather book bindings and more, creates high-quality cover materials from waste to achieve maximum sustainability.
Ready to see for yourself just how appealing this super-sustainable fabric can be? Enter to win 1 of 50 Toile Ocean-bound notebooks right now! Hurry, this contest ends May 4th. (North American entries only, please.) THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED
