Chervelle Fryer illustrates the world's first children's book made entirely from recycled ocean plastic

It tells the story of Pippa. Her biggest dream is to swim with every animal in the ocean, until one day, she finally gets to live her dream. But on her adventure through the deep blue sea, she realises that the animals can't swim: they are all trapped in plastic. But the brave heroine is able to help them, banning plastics from her home for good – and becomes the Queen of the Ocean.

How was the book made? Belgium-based NPO Waste Free Oceans collected plastics from all over the world for the pages and cover of the book. While Japanese firm, Teijin, developed an innovative process: it shreds plastics into pellets and turns these into fibres – the fibres are then transformed into a material that is tear and water-resistant. It can also be processed just like real paper. As a result, the pair has created The Ocean Plastic Book with How Pippa Became The Queen of the Ocean being its first offering and many more stories to come.

"Instead of extracting more natural resources, we wanted to lead to a change with what’s not only freely available but what’s doing harm right now," said Bernard Merkx, CEO of Waste Free Oceans. "With the Ocean Plastic Books, we turned harmful ocean plastic into a force for good – that can be passed on for generations to come."

Waste Free Oceans and Teijin are currently working to get the environmentally-friendly Ocean Plastic Books into the hands of as many children as possible. Because, as Merkx puts it: "Every book helps to clean the ocean and to keep it clean. And doing nothing is simply not an option."