*Over one million pounds of trash has been removed from oceans and waterways thanks to the dedicated and committed efforts of the United By Blue B-Corporation. What began as t-shirts and a handful of cleanup volunteers quickly grew to a global outdoor brand with plenty of enthusiastic volunteers. The brand may have expanded over the years, but the mission has remained the same. To Founders, Mike Cangi and Brian Linton, the product for sale is merely a vehicle to continue cleaning the polluted oceans and waterways that are devastating to the oceanic ecosystems and to us. The mission is simple and to the point. For every product sold, one pound of trash is removed. Through organized cleanups, United By Blue removes trash from creeks, rivers, beaches, and streams. No waterway too small or too large. Clean water is a basic necessity and needs to be treated with respect.
Here are the chilling facts. An estimated eight million tons of plastic ends up in our oceans every year. 1.Recently, Dr Alan Jamieson from Newcastle University discovered plastic fibers inside animals 11 kilometers deep in the Pacific Ocean. That is seven miles deep! The study findings proved that our reckless behavior has infiltrated even the most remote and deepest parts of our oceans, contaminating our potential food source and killing marine mammals. 2. An estimated 100 million mammals each year to be exact. The most endangered include sea turtles, seals, sea lions, seabirds, fish, whales, and dolphins. Even if you do decide to give up eating fish or seafood 3. (of which it is estimated that you will consume 11,000 plastic fragments in seafood each year) the pollution is pervasive and determines the quality of our ecosystem…
United By Blue was one of our very first features included in the Fall 2018 issue of Deliberately Considerate. To read the complete article, please click here.
*Since this article was written, UBB has removed 3,315,610 pounds of trash. During the pandemic, both stores in Philadelphia are closed, but the online store remains open.
Photo credits: Heart & Rae Photography
