Biography
Merijn Everaarts started out as an entrepreneur in the event and marketing business. Today, the Dutchman has only one priority: his initiative for a better world, Dopper, a social enterprise to make an impact on reducing plastic waste by providing a sustainable water bottle for (filtered) tap water.
His mission is to:
- create awareness regarding the impact of single-use plastic waste and inspiring people to initiate a change.
- offer an innovative line of sustainable bottles
- increase access to safe drinking water for people around the world.
Merijn says he started Dopper after seeing a shocking documentary in 2009 about the enormous amount of plastic waste that finds its way to our oceans instead of being recycled, turning our waters “into plastic soup”. Merijn said he also noticed a lot of people throwing away single-use plastic water bottles every day and that he ‘felt the urge to do something about this”.
Thus in January 2010, he launched an open design competition in search of ‘the perfect sustainable bottle for drinking water’. Rinke van Remortel won the competition with his awesome Dutch Design with perfect functionality, inspired by the vision of reducing plastic waste and using fresh drinking water rather than expensive pre-bottled water. Today, the Dopper bottle is sold across the globeand Merijn and his team are inspiring people on a daily bases to make the earth a better place.
As the Dopper organization grew Merijn contemplated the business model, and in 2013 he established the Dopper Foundation. Ever since, Dopper donates 5% of its net proceeds to the Dopper Foundation for clean water access projects in Nepal and educational campaigns around single-use plastic waste and water use.