There’s a new plastic-bottle water brand on the market. It’s called Acqua Sordida and it’s produced by premium reusable bottle brand, Ocean Bottle and agency, Here be Dragons. Floating in the water are “bits” that represent the microplastics in the world’s waterways. They should deter you from drinking. More importantly, they exist to encourage you to break up with single-use plastic bottles this Valentine’s Day.

Acqua Sordida translates to Dirty Water and the “new brand” highlights the impact that single-use plastic bottles are having on both the environment and human’s bodies.

The launch follows research, commissioned Ocean Bottle, that found adults will get through more than 200 billion single use plastic water bottles in a lifetime. The study of 2,000 people found 27% of British adults are regular users with the average plastic bottle drinker buying five per month, and awareness of the physical danger to human bodies is low. Although 88% of adults know that plastic gets dumped into the ocean every day and will end up back in our food and drink chain, the average adult has negligible understanding of how many pieces of microplastic particles can be found in plastic bottled water. A recent study from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal found that people are consuming 240,000 tiny invisible pieces of plastic with every litre of bottled water – which is 10-100 times more than previously estimated.

The campaign calls on the British public to take a pledge to give up single-use plastic water bottles via its website this Valentine’s Day.  Everyone who takes the pledge will be in with a chance to win a limited edition reusable Ocean Bottle. 

 Acqua Sordida’s launch follows the announcement that Ocean Bottle has saved one billion bottles from going into the ocean so far. For every reusable bottle it sells, Ocean Bottle collects 1000 plastic bottles in places where plastic pollution is worst.