Tamara Davison
Tamara Davison is a journalist who specializes in sustainability and the environment. Reporting from around the world, she's seen firsthand the direct impact waste is having on coastal communities and our oceans. As a diver trained in ecological monitoring, the changes Tamara has seen in marine habitats inspired her to action. She's previously written for The Guardian, The Independent and the Evening Standard. She's also produced environmental documentaries for EuroNews.
Mounting plastic waste, emerging regulations, and consumer appetite are driving a shift toward sustainable practices among businesses.
But when it comes to taking action against plastic — where do you start?
Partnering with an organization like CleanHub, which helps brands take ownership of plastic waste, can be a transformational first step.
And you’d be joining hundreds of global companies that have already teamed up with us to curb plastic pollution.
CleanHub works with brands to fund plastic waste collections and ensure the materials are properly processed — but there are other benefits too. Here’s what you need to know.
What’s on this page?
01 | CleanHub’s mission
02 | How we work with brands
03 | The benefits of partnering with CleanHub
04 | Summary: Partner with CleanHub today
CleanHub’s mission
CleanHub started as a “quest to find a scalable solution for plastic pollution,” according to our co-founder, Joel Tasche.
Powered by a team of ocean lovers and sustainability experts, CleanHub has created a collective solution that addresses plastic waste by introducing waste management systems to communities that don't currently have any.
Most importantly, we help brands and businesses reevaluate their relationship with plastic and support a circular economy. We do this without jeopardizing business operations, efficiency, or profitability.
We know there’s some way to go when it comes to plastic pollution, but we haven’t stopped dreaming big. “We want to see a Clean Hub in every pollution hotspot around the world,” Joel added — and we need brands to help us achieve that.
How we work with brands
More than 64% of consumers want better schemes for removing plastic and packaging, according to Deloitte, and expect brands to help them.
This is where CleanHub comes in, working with businesses to improve plastic waste management through various tried and tested strategies.
Brands partnering with us have two main options: fund plastic waste collections or get a packaging assessment — or both!
Fund plastic waste
CleanHub helps brands prevent plastic waste from entering the ocean by facilitating waste collections in coastal communities, and ensuring the trash is properly processed, repurposed, or recycled.
We do this through a variety of methods, but household waste collection tends to be the most common process. You can find out more on this by visiting our page How CleanHub Collects Plastic Waste.
So, how do brands get involved? Our partners fund waste collections through various pricing structures, including:
- Collecting plastic for every product sold
- Contributing a set percentage of your revenue
- Funding collections based on the equivalent of your plastic footprint
- Creating a custom plan specific to your business needs
This money then goes into projects around the world, collecting and sorting plastic waste in coastal communities most impacted by our planet’s plastic crisis.
This means brands are helping communities in countries like Indonesia, India, Tanzania, The Philippines, and beyond — and can feel good knowing they’re doing their bit for the planet as well.
This structure supports a circular economy and offers a vital lifeline to families by creating jobs and improving local environments.
Get a packaging assessment
CleanHub also offers packaging assessments for brands that don’t know where to start.
Around 36% of all plastic produced comes from packaging, and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) said around three-quarters of this will end up in landfill or as unregulated waste. So, we decided to partner with packaging auditors to help business leaders better understand their brand's supply chain and environmental impact.
Our Circular Packaging Assessment leverages in-depth analysis to paint a clearer picture of your packaging’s impact. The goal is to make your journey toward sustainability as easy as possible.
It’ll give you a circularity and sustainability score and summarize which areas of your business need the most improvement.
Equipped with this knowledge, CleanHub can help you create a tailored strategy for making packaging more sustainable while improving your brand’s image in an increasingly conscious world.
The benefits of partnering with CleanHub
Partnering with CleanHub can unlock a wide range of benefits for brands and the planet — from ensuring compliance with incoming environmental regulations to supporting the livelihoods of coastal communities. Here’s what’s in it for you.
Reduce your plastic footprint
By purchasing plastic credits and funding waste collections, brands that partner with us can dramatically reduce their plastic footprint.
We help you determine your total plastic footprint and identify the best solution for funding waste to achieve plastic neutrality.
Take it from seafood supplier Ocean Brands, which partnered with CleanHub to collect 61,065 kilograms of plastic in 2023 — 20,000 kg more than their business’s plastic output.
Support coastal communities
More than 2.7 billion people worldwide lack access to proper waste management, and they often come from marginalized communities that don’t have the resources to take action alone.
Our teams work with communities in plastic pollution hotspots to establish impactful collection systems while ensuring brands’ investments count. As part of our social commitment, we prioritize workers’ safety, run regular social audits, and ensure fair pay. You can learn more about this by visiting our Social and Environmental Impact page.
We even take this one step further by offering educational programs and upskilling workers to help empower people on the front line of our planet’s plastic crisis.
It means your commitment to funding plastic waste goes so much further than just cleaning our oceans — it’s supporting people’s livelihoods and unlocking education.
Have an impact your customers can trust
We believe technology can be a force for good in plastic waste recovery — that’s why we’ve developed a track-and-trace solution that gives brands real-time data points about their impact.
Our waste collection partners share proof of each plastic collection through a live dashboard that allows us to verify the amount of waste collected, sorted, and properly disposed of. We receive around 70 data points daily worldwide, including picture proof to ensure transparency.
This is both an anti-greenwashing guarantee and something you can share with your customers to build trust while showcasing your commitment to the planet.
And since we’re the only system verified according to ISO standards (as of 2023), you can share your efforts confidently. We now also have three certified internal auditors for SA8000. This is the leading social certification globally, providing a holistic framework for fair treatment of workers.
Receive a real-time impact report
Brands that fund collections have access to an online impact report to track the amount of plastic waste collected in real-time.
As you can see from this example of Vuori’s impact report, the page breaks down annual waste collections, shows the impact of each collection, and pinpoints precisely where the collections are taking place in the world.
It even highlights data points about the amount of waste converted into energy and how the collections impact your carbon footprint.
Again, this page can be shared with customers, regulators, and partners to provide a clear picture of your environmental commitments.
Integrate CleanHub at checkout
An Application Programming Interface (API) is a technology that connects two pieces of software to ensure they work synchronously. Our API connects to your brand’s platform, so we can automatically fund collections based on the products you’ve sold.
This is a great way to show customers the impact of each purchase, helping to build a community of returning shoppers who care about their impact.
It also means our reporting can be placed directly on your website, providing your audience with clear data about real-time collection results.
Fund additional plastic collection through campaigns
Some brands go one step further and carry out fun campaigns to collect even more plastic.
Whether it's your business’s tenth anniversary or you want to make an extra push ahead of World Ocean’s Day, we love collaborating on innovative projects and events. We also host beach cleanups, encourage visits to our collection hubs, and make sure our partners and their customers truly feel involved in our plastic waste projects.
Ocean Brand’s TikTok game is one example of how to create fun collection campaigns. Working closely with CleanHub, the brand created a TikTok game where plastic was collected on behalf of players. For every game played, Ocean Brands invested in the collection of an additional 1kg of plastic waste, resulting in an extra 20,000 kg of plastic removed from our oceans.
Have access to ready-to-use content assets
Beyond collecting plastic on your behalf, CleanHub is also committed to sharing your story. We’ve created a robust marketing dashboard that offers assets and data that you can share with your audience.
This is particularly useful on key environmental days like Earth Day, as you can use the assets to promote your message on social media.
CleanHub is also a broader hub for environmental education, featuring a wealth of knowledge through blogs and social media content.
Whether it's discovering the true impact of Black Friday or learning about what plastic credits actually are, we have you covered.
We collaborate with journalists, environmental scientists, and plastic packaging experts to create informative resources and reports.
Add the CleanHub label to your products
By adding a CleanHub label, brands can showcase their impact on their products, similar to a B-corp or FSC logo.
These logos include key information about whether your brand is plastic-neutral or even plastic-positive, and help communicate your commitment to plastic in front of the people who matter.
As more and more customers look for environmental branding and information, these product labels will become more important to brand strategy and sales.
Summary: Partner with CleanHub today
It’s pretty clear that addressing waste will become increasingly crucial for businesses over the next few years. And that’s all the more reason to kickstart your journey today.
“You can either be known for complying with regulation, or you can be known for being the first to move — and acting because you think it's the right thing,” Joel explained.
He added: “If you can say that you were one of the OGs of changing plastic pollution, that's something that speaks for your brand.”
From supporting coastal communities to collecting thousands of kilos of plastic polluting our oceans, your partnership with CleanHub can have a long-lasting and positive impact.
Ready to unlock the benefits of partnering with CleanHub? Talk to our team today to learn about the ways we can help you.
