Global Innovation: Winter presents book cover Toile Ocean

Winter & Company, a traditional Swiss company, launches the world's first book cover woven from recycled ocean plastic: It's called Toile Ocean.

Sustainability is a major concern for the fourth-generation family-run company. Toile Ocean is produced in collaboration with tide ocean SA (#tide) and is set to revolutionise the book market.

Toile Ocean is woven mainly from #tide's recycled ocean-bound plastic. The material's high durability offers numerous possible applications - especially for bookbinding (book covers), which are otherwise mostly made of paper or textile materials. However, the fabric can also be used as a cover material for hang tags (clothing labels), premium packaging, shopping bags and stationery items like menu cards in restaurants. It can also be sewn and printed for the production of Tote Bags.

"Our goal with Toile Ocean was to create an attractive cover material with raw materials that are not common in our industry. At the same time, we wanted to combine a natural look and feel of a textile that conveys a strong environmental message," says Christoph Borer, CEO of Winter & Company. The product development took about 1.5 years. The product is characterised by its high durability. It can be offset printed and finished with screen printing and foil stamping.

1 m2 of Toile Ocean contains more than 5 PET bottles from the ocean and coastlines. If Toile Ocean had been used as the cover material for volume 1 of Harry Potter, it would have bound around 75 million plastic bottles.

Toile Ocean is available from stock worldwide in six natural colours.

Are you looking for a bookbinding material with a strong environmental message? Then Toile Ocean is the perfect match for you.