The journey ahead
Our story is a simple one.
Focus on a big problem that seems impossible to solve. Envision a novel way to attack it. Execute on that vision the entrepreneur’s way—run lean, scrappy, and fast, harness today's art of the possible, and iterate relentlessly until you get it right.
And, most importantly, fall madly in love with the problem as you go … the Delete Litter story starts with one number:
According to the landmark Keep America Beautiful 2020 National Litter Study, there are an estimated 50 billion pieces of litter in the United States alone. That equals 150 pieces of litter for every American. Cleaning that mess up certainly sounds impossible, right?
Well … let’s do a little math.
150 pieces of litter per American amounts to every single person in the U.S. picking up just 3 pieces of litter a week—or 13 pieces a month—for one year. On a personal level, that feels like a reasonable commitment to make in order to enjoy a cleaner world around us. Doesn’t it?
And ... don’t you think we can do BETTER?
The core challenge then is how might we exponentially increase the number of people who make a firm and visible commitment to eliminate litter in our communities through sustained, everyday efforts? And serve as vivid reminders to stop people from littering our public spaces in the first place?
We believe that the solution starts with making litter collection communal, rewarding, and fun—supporting and motivating our members so that we may sustain our individual and group efforts, inspire others to join our mission, and be the difference.
As we continue on this journey together and grow the community, our North Star is to collectively remove 1 billion pieces of litter per year by 2030.
As a for-profit social enterprise, we intend to keep our tools and resources free for our members and fund the mission through paid Litterboard team challenges, corporate sponsorships, and merch sales.
Operating this way ensures that we serve all stakeholders impacted by the world’s litter problem. By adopting a self-funding model and not taking on outside investment capital or unnecessary bureaucracy, our leadership can ensure that we remain “purpose first” as a business, operate with full transparency, and direct profits to enabling our efforts and powering our progress.
In future, we also plan to support the non-profit 1% for the Planet Impact Fund and attain Certified B Corporation verification through the B Lab non-profit.
We are beyond grateful for your interest and citizenship. Sign up today and commit to a creating a litter-free world around you.
Here’s to having some Good. Clean. Fun. out there!
CB 🌎 💚
Christopher (CB) Brenchley
Founder & CEO
Delete Litter LLC