Sunday, May 1, 2022
The two giant organizations collaborate to carry out WeLoveU’s Clean WORLD Movement
South Amboy, NJ — The Intl. WeLoveU Foundation (WeLoveU) partnered with the world’s largest online retail company, Amazon, to clean up the Raritan Bay Waterfront Park in New Jersey. Amazon employees rolled up their sleeves to join WeLoveU volunteers in the removal of litter and illegal dumping from the park to encourage proper recycling and waste disposal. The united effort led the groups to collect 50 bags of trash and 7 bags of recyclables. The cleanup is part of WeLoveU’s Clean WORLD Movement, an environmental initiative the non-profit has actively led since 2009, where volunteers clean up polluted cities, parks, mountains, rivers, and seas, to promote a clean world for the present and future generations. The environmental program has reached 58 countries, with over 1,600 cleanups and more than 250,000 volunteers.
“Today’s impact was definitely through the people coming together and the connections we’ve made,” explained Kelly Outeiral, HR Business Partner at Amazon. “This is going to be a forever partnership between Amazon and the WeLoveU Foundation and especially the people in the community too.”
In 2019, Raritan Headwaters staff members conducted a survey of the Raritan River and found more than 4,000 pieces of plastic in the water that were too small to be removed through the water treatment process. 70% of the trash in parks is from single-use plastics such as food wrappers, bottles, caps, and shopping bags. Over time, the waste moves into waterways and breaks down into microplastics, which ultimately end up in our oceans and are mistakenly eaten by both marine life and humans. Microplastics are becoming a major threat to the Raritan River, which is a drinking water source for 1.5 million New Jersey homes and businesses. In response, Amazon employees teamed up with the WeLoveU Foundation, which has more than a decade of experience in coordinating diverse beach, park, and street cleanups to tackle the issue.
“The WeLoveU Foundation is happy to unite with Amazon for this waterfront park cleanup. The earth is the habitat for all living creatures, and litter is a problem affecting our marine life, air quality, and water at an alarming rate,” explained Duane Ford, Executive Director of WeLoveU. “As dumping and littering is a problem caused by people, we must work together towards a solution. We are hopeful and excited to take action together with today’s Amazon’s volunteers to help make a positive change for our environment.”
About the Intl. WeLoveU Foundation
Founder and Chairwoman Zahng Gil-jah established the International WeLoveU Foundation in 2001 — which is associated with the United Nations Department of Global Communications (UN DGC) — as a vehicle to deliver a mother’s love to neighbors in need. The Chairwoman took a grassroots approach by personally interacting with and caring for the needs of the global village. Through the initiatives of emergency relief, education, environmental protection, health, international aid, and community well-being, the Chairwoman’s example of giving a mother’s love has spread from the east to the west and planted itself in more than 50 countries to inspire a healthy and hopeful future for many. For more information, visit weloveuusa.org and follow @weloveuusa.
About Amazon
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit www.amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.
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