Bluewater Backs UN 's Declaration of War on Ocean Plastic

Earlier this year at the Economist World Ocean Summit in Bali, UN Environment launched an unprecedented global campaign to eliminate major sources of marine litter: microplastics in cosmetics and the excessive, wasteful usage of single-use plastic by the year 2022.

The #CleanSeas campaign urges governments to pass plastic reduction policies; targeting industry to minimize plastic packaging and redesign products; and calling on consumers to change their throwaway habits – before irreversible damage is done to our seas.

Bluewater founder Bengt Rittri, an environmental entrepreneur, shares a deep concern about the levels of plastic now found in all oceans around the world.

According to the UN, more than 8 million tonnes of plastic ends up in the oceans every year, 'wreaking havoc on marine wildlife, fisheries and tourism, and costing at least $8 billion in damage to marine ecosystems. Up to 80 per cent of all litter in our oceans is made of plastic.'

Sweden is famed around the world for being a clean country. Yet the Baltic Sea, along which the country's East Coast nestles, suffers from unacceptable plastic waste and other pollution as well as a shortage of potable water.

And with micro plastics in the stomachs of almost one in three mackerel caught in the Baltic, according to Stockholm University’s Baltic Sea Centre, Bengt has made delivering clean drinking water and tackling ocean plastic pollution a cornerstone of Bluewater’s business mission.

To deliver on the vision of our founder, we need to use all our ingenuity to find ways and technologies to protect both water resources and marine environments. Turning words into action is why Bluewater this summer trialed using its top performing water purifiers in unmanned hydration stations in the America's Cup Village on Bermuda, which was hosting the prestigious sailing trophy.

The trial proved hugely successful. And has already spurred ideas about how we can use our water purifying technologies not only to deliver cleaner, healthier water to homeowners and small businesses such as restaurants, but also perhaps how in the future we can help communities phase out single-use plastic bottles that threaten the environmental health of our planet.

Watch this space! #nosingleuseplastics