We are thrilled to announce the first round of donations from our BrushEco mission!
When we shared our BrushEco mission with you just over a year ago, we committed to donating 100% of profits from BrushEco sales to groups that are cleaning up the oceans around the world. You can learn more about the BrushEco mission here.
And you showed up!
Thank you for valuing BrushEco and our mission.
We’re super excited to let you all know that so far, in keeping with our promise to you, we’ve donated a total of $10,000 to two organizations that are each committed to cleaning up the world’s oceans in very different ways.
Donation #1: The Seabin Foundation ($5000)
The Seabin Foundation caught our attention a few years ago as a very novel solution. This group focuses on capturing the plastic waste that’s entering the oceans around the world.
Their flagship tool, the Seabin, functions like an automatic filter and trash can. It picks up both light oil spills and plastic garbage that’s in the water at an important interface between oceans and humans: the seaport.
Here’s a quick video that shows how the Seabin works.
To date, the Seabin Foundation has launched 860 Seabins in major ports all around the world. In their FAQ’s, the foundation estimates that each of their bins “…catches an estimated 1.5 tons of marine debris per year (depending on weather and debris volumes)…” That’s a lot of garbage getting pulled from the water and being kept from entering the earth’s oceans!
We are honored to support the Seabin Foundation’s work to help prevent plastic trash from traveling into Earth’s ocean gyres.
Donation #2: Sea Shepherd ($5000)
While the primary focus of our BrushEco mission is to help clean up plastic waste from the oceans around the world, we decided to provide a little diversity to our donations this time and support Sea Shepherd.
If you’re not familiar with Sea Shepherd’s founder, conservation and environmental activist Captain Paul Watson, we’re honored to introduce you to this contemporary hero and his organization.
For decades, the courageous people from Sea Shepherd have been putting themselves into harm’s way to stop the illegal fishing and poaching of protected marine wildlife.
They fill a very important role by providing some ‘teeth’ to help safeguard marine wildlife in international waters where most countries are not willing or able to patrol and protect.
Here’s a quick video that shows what these brave folks do to protect ocean wildlife.
Since the fishing industry is a large contributor to ocean trash (their lost ‘ghost nets’ make up a sizable percentage of the plastic waste found in the gyres), we like to think that Sea Shepherd’s efforts to reduce illegal fishing and poaching could potentially wind up reducing some of the plastic waste that would otherwise wind up in the oceans, too.
Currently, Sea Shepherd has a sponsor who is matching any donation that they receive. So, our $5000 donation will actually be funding $10,000 toward Sea Shepherd’s efforts to stop illegal poaching of protected marine wildlife.
Thank you SO much!
Because of your support of BrushEco, we’ve been able to donate to these wonderful organizations. Truly, this is a win for every single one of you who trusted us with these ‘sustainable edition’ Bass toothbrushes. Because of your interest in this, we’re able to help provide funding for great groups that are doing amazing work around the world.
Of course, the added benefit is that by choosing BrushEco toothbrushes, you not only help support global organizations that are committed to cleaning up the oceans, but you also get the benefit of having awesome, eco-friendly, gum-disease-busting Bass toothbrushes for you and your family to use each day.
Learn more about the BrushEco mission.
Where to from here?
We’d like to let you in on a little secret of ours…
We want BrushEco to revolutionize how our global community thinks about oral hygiene. If we can get BrushEco into just 1% of the homes in the world, we could support some major programs to clean up this plastic mess we’re all in.
With this round of donations, we’ve been able to give $10,000. We want to see subsequent donations be 100x or even 1000x these donations. What type of positive change is possible when we as individuals gather and unite around a common purpose?
By ourselves, it’s so easy to feel powerless to effect change. However, the truth is, as individuals, we are each powerful beyond measure.
And when we work together, well, that’s the stuff that moves mountains.
Thank you for participating in our little revolution. It’s an honor to join arms with you to help provide others with healthier mouths, with oceans filled with healthy wildlife all while we reduce plastic from entering the waste-stream.
We’re the ones we’ve been waiting for.
Please share your ideas, feedback, (and/or kudos) for this celebratory moment in the comments below.
Helpful, Related Resources:
The BrushEco Mission
Seabin Project
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
