Sustainable apparel and accessories firm, United By Blue’s innovative packaging solution reduces 80% of the plastic from its supply chain.
United By Blue's sustainable packaging solution
United By Blue uses banana fiber paper as the packaging material instead of plastics to pack t-shirts. Banana trees are a continually renewable resource and the packaging from banana fiber is biodegradable. The company uses plastics as a lining material for its boxes in order to protect the organic cotton slub t-shirts from moisture damage during shipments.
According to Brian Linton, United By Blue’s founder and Chief Trash Collector, the company collects plastic wastage as the number one material during waterway and ocean cleanups. The Director of Marketing at United By Blue, Alli Blum stated that by buying the company’s products, the customers can become a part of a program that decreases wastage via a novel packaging design.
Mike Cangi, who serves as Director of Cleanups at United By Blue, stated that every year, about 14 billion lbs of trash accumulated in oceans, of which a major share is from the single use plastic products.
United By Blue produces its shirts from organically planted cotton. The company has removed about 30,000 lbs of wastage from waterways and oceans since its inception in May 2010. The company intends to remove about 100,000 lbs of wastage from the ocean by 2011 and 1 million lbs in 2012.