Tonnes a year
300m
Plastic waste made every year.
About the weight of the entire human population, every single year. Around 40% of all plastic produced is packaging, used once and thrown away.
Our mission
One million kilos of plastic. Out of the sea, for good.
That is the goal. It is a big number and we chose it on purpose. Sandbar is a sustainable family swimwear brand, and every piece you buy funds the removal of 1 kg of plastic from oceans, beaches and waterways, collected by hand by clean-up crews on our behalf.
Progress so far
63,511kg
removed so far, of a goal of 1,000,000 kg
Counted live from every order, online and in our stores, since day one. When a piece comes back, its kilo comes off the count. No rounding up and no estimates.
6.4% of the way to a million. A long way to go. That is rather the point.
How ocean plastic removal works
Every piece you buy takes a kilo out.
For every item sold, swimwear, towels, bags and sunscreen included, we fund the removal of 1 kg of plastic. Our partners, Seven Clean Seas and Tidy Ocean, employ real teams of people in Southeast Asia and in South and Central America to recover plastic from rivers, mangroves and shoreline before it reaches open water, then sort it at their recovery facilities. We are supporting local communities and removing plastic from the ocean.
Southeast Asia is where much of the world's ocean plastic enters the sea, so that is where we started. We fund it on every piece, whatever the margin. The ocean comes first.
1 kgfor every item sold
BintanIndonesia, with Seven Clean Seas
By handrivers, mangroves and shoreline
Why we do it: the ocean plastic problem
The sea gave us our name. It is filling up with plastic.
The scale of the problem, and why a kilo at a time still matters.
Every minute
1 truckload
A truckload of plastic enters the ocean every minute.
A rubbish truck's worth of plastic reaches the sea every minute. In the same minute, a million plastic bottles are bought around the world.
Sea turtles
52%
Over half of sea turtles have eaten plastic.
So have around 60% of seabird species. And plastic takes centuries to break down. It never really goes, it just breaks into smaller pieces.
On current trends
2050
More plastic than fish by 2050?
By 2050 there could be more plastic in the sea than fish, by weight. That is the line we want to bend, one kilo at a time.
Sources: UN Environment Programme; World Economic Forum and Ellen MacArthur Foundation; Euromonitor; National Geographic; Wilcox et al., PNAS (2015); Schuyler et al., Global Change Biology (2016).
Be part of the change
Join our Ambassador community.
Help us choose new prints, spread the Sandbar mission, receive free swimwear and make a real dent in marine plastic. Tell us a little about you and we will be in touch.
- 01Pick the prints.
Have your say on new designs before they are made.
- 02Wear it first.
Free swimwear to wear, shoot and share.
- 03Spread the word.
Bring the mission to your own community.
Tell us about you
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Mission questions
How it actually works.
Straight answers on where your kilo goes, who collects it and how we count it.
What is Sandbar's mission?
To remove one million kilos of plastic from oceans, beaches and waterways. Every item sold moves us 1 kg closer, and so far Sandbar customers have removed 63,511 kg.
How does Sandbar remove ocean plastic?
We fund clean-up crews run by our partner Seven Clean Seas. For every item sold, 1 kg of plastic is collected by hand from rivers, mangroves and shoreline in Bintan, Indonesia, then sorted at their recovery facility.
Does every item count, or just swimwear?
Every item counts: swimwear, towels, bags and sunscreen, bought online or in our stores.
How is the total counted?
Live, from our order data. Every item sold online and in store since we started is counted, returns and cancellations come off, and the total includes the kilos from our original website. No estimates and no rounding up.
Who are Seven Clean Seas?
An ocean clean-up organisation founded in Singapore that runs plastic recovery projects across Southeast Asia, employing local crews to clear plastic from polluted coastlines and rivers.
How do I join the Sandbar Ambassador community?
Fill in the form on this page with your name, email and Instagram handle. We will be in touch about choosing new prints, free swimwear to wear and share, and ways to spread the mission.
Every piece moves the line. Start with yours.
Shop the collection and 1 kg of plastic comes out of the sea for every piece you buy.
