REBO smart water bottle uses blockchain to fund marine plastic waste collection
A smart water bottle that claims to clean the planet as you drink has been launched on crowd funding platform Indiegogo.
Manufacturer REBO says unlike other bottles that provide a one-off sum on sales of the bottle to environmental charities, its built-in technology means that every sip “creates credits”, resulting in plastic collection and job creation in developing countries.
“REBO enables people to make real change on an individual basis by bringing together people’s passion for the planet and advanced product technology” says Pier Andrea Quatra, REBO’s founder. “We are using crowd funding to create a tribe of advocates that can be first to use REBO at launch, be the first to make an individual impact and be the first to share the result with their friends.”
The firm says the bottle makes a direct impact on reducing marine waste using technology built into the cap, which also includes GPS to find water fountains.
Every time a user refills and drinks, it directly funds marine plastic waste collection by encrypted Blockchain technology that creates credits with REBO’s partner, Plastic Bank. An app linked to the REBO bottle tracks all the credits generated as well as how many bottles are collected thanks to the REBO owner.
“The bottle gives people who are committed to reducing waste the opportunity to directly impact the cleanup of beaches and the sea” says Quatra. “Every drop you drink will reduce a lake of marine waste through the embedded technology.”
The bottle, which is made from steel and is fully recyclable, holds 600 ml of water and is available now on Indiegogo.
REBO has closed its first seed round of capital from Next Generation Fund and has been co-developed in partnership with APTAR, a specialist in dispensing systems.