As a design material, plastic is fantastic. Cheap, durable and light - it is the doyen of packaging, the king of all our white goods and the magic ingredient in everything from shampoo to cosmetics. But, as we send more and more plastic to landfill and into our oceans, it is becoming ubiquitous with our environment.

Packaging can earn a wide range of awards and that's all well and good, but there’s a globally known organization, the United Nations (New York City), that’s not usually associated with awards for packaging developments.

TerraCycle has been named a winner of a United Nations Momentum for Change Lighthouse Activity award. The recognition is for the initiative announced earlier this year with TerraCycle, Procter & Gamble and SUEZ to create the world’s first fully recyclable shampoo bottle made with beach plastic.

The drive down New York Avenue in Trenton is like any other drive down the back roads of one of Rider’s neighboring towns. Old, abandoned body shops line the streets and people linger, having conversations on front stoops. At the end of New York Avenue sits TerraCycle, a recycling company dedicated to making the earth a cleaner place by finding sustainable solutions for everyday products.

Procter & Gamble is the latest brand to use ocean plastics in its packaging in a bid to boost home recycling rates Procter & Gamble announced this month that it is worked with New Jersey-based recycling experts TerraCycle to make bottles for its Fairy washing up liquid with 10% ocean plastic and 90% post-consumer recycled plastic.