Every year, over 14 billion pounds of trash enters our oceans and 80% comes from land-based sources. It starts with a food wrapper left behind on a city sidewalk, a newspaper dumped down a storm drain, or a water bottle left behind on a creekside hike. It doesn’t matter if a waterway runs through a coastal city or small town in the Midwest: all waterways eventually feed into our deep blue seas.
Regardless of the location, we consistently see the same things at our cleanups—plastic bottles and caps, plastic bags, stryofoam food containers and cups, food wrappers, and plastic cutlery. These foreign objects get carried out to our oceans and have negative effects on its inhabitants.
United By Blue's business model allows us to use the power of business to make a tangible and positive impact on the environment. Instead of outsourcing our dirty work, we like to tack on our waste management hats and get our hands dirty. Our cleaning planning includes everything from selecting a location to picking up trash at the site with our volunteers.
Our community volunteers include our retailer partners, universities, environmental groups, service organizations, municipalities, townships, schools and businesses, we welcome everyone to join in on our cleanup fun. Cleaning up trash may not be the most glamorous thing in the world, but we make our cleanups educational, fun events with contests, giveaways, supplies, and food for all of our volunteers.
Our cleanups have taken place along quiet creeks, mighty rivers and popular beaches in 15 states in two countries. During our 2012 season, we plan on tackling new trash numbers, increasing our volunteer count and adding a variety of new cleanup locations.To take a deeper look at our past cleanups, visit our youtube page for cleanup videos.
Want to get involved? Click our upcoming cleanups page to volunteer at a site near you or drop us a line at cleanup@unitedbyblue.com.
