Outdoor apparel brand United By Blue takes charge in ocean cleanup effort

Active lifestyle brands are organizing to protect the environment they rely on. This month, a small Philadelphia-based apparel company picked up 250,000lb of waste

On a late Saturday morning earlier this month, hundreds of people gathered under a navy blue tent at Brandywine Creek in Wilmington, Delaware, in preparation to pick up trash. Philadelphia-based outdoor lifestyle company United By Blue has been organizing these waterway cleanups since the company was founded in 2010, but this day was a bit different. It marked the company's 140th cleanup, on target to collect 250,000lb of waste from beaches and waterways.

In 2007, United By Blue founder Brian Linton started Sand Shack, a company that sold resort jewelry, and donated some of the revenue to nonprofits focused on ocean and waterway conservation.