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Interview: How Dopper Plans to End Plastic Waste
Dopper is a Dutch social enterprise started by Merijn Everaarts in response to the global scourge of plastic waste accumulating in oceans around the world. The premise is simple - produce a reusable water bottle appealing enough to convince consumers to carry it with them, refiling when necessary from the tap.
When Dopper says "The Bottle is the Message," what they're implying is that the bottle becomes a communications vehicle to educate consumers and influence a change in buying habits. In practice, changing human behavior is easier said than done and requires creativity and persistence. Dopper has put on numerous attention grabbing events from flash mobs in Amsterdam to life sized plastic waves constructed in San Francisco.
The actual results? So far so good. According to Everaarts, 3 percent of the Dutch population owns and uses a Dopper bottle and as much as 25 percent is ripe to take interest in buying one. With Dopper's ongoing launch in the United States it's easy to see that if anything close to those percentages can be met in the US market, real change might be on the horizon.
Learn more in my brief interview with Dopper founder Merijn Everaarts after the jump...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySVfr9y2t0E
Nick Aster is the founder of TriplePundit. Prior to launching 3p, Nick worked for Mother Jones magazine, successfully re-launching the magazine's online presence. He worked for TreeHugger.com, managing the technical side of the publication for 3 years, and has also been an active consultant for individuals and companies entering the world of micro-publishing. He also worked for Gawker Media and Moreover Technologies in the early days of blogging. Nick holds an MBA in sustainable management from the Presidio School of Management and graduated with a BA in History from Washington University in St. Louis.
