We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Joshua Wilson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Joshua, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

This all began while we were living in the Caribbean on a 37′ sailboat. As avid scuba divers we began noticing litter in and under the sea, on reefs and especially on deserted islands where no humans visited. We hated seeing such pristine conditions littered with human garbage so wherever we traveled we would always pick up what we could. However, the more we traveled the more we began to see the problem growing. It was extremely disheartening not being able to remove more and help out more, but a sailboat only has so much space. As soon as we moved back to Saint Louis, we knew we had to do something about the pollution problem, especially after learning that 80% of ocean pollution begins upriver.

Since we are passionate about nature and love being outdoors, a conservation company set on cleaning our local waterways was an easy and perfect next step. We began Blue2Blue Conservation to help educate people about the climate issues at hand, clean local waterways to prevent inland litter from reaching the ocean, and restore our ecosystem so that younger generations can enjoy the beauty of nature.

Joshua, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

We are extremely proud of the work we do with the local communities because this is where the real solution to a cleaner planet begins. We host monthly cleanups in and around the St. Louis region and if it weren’t for the help of our many volunteers, we wouldn’t be able to boast about the amount of man-made pollution we’ve removed from the environment. Another thing we really pride ourselves on is that we’re not a non-profit or a charity. We sell “Soap2Clean” all-natural, hand-made soap as a way to fund the cleanup efforts, and for every box of soap we sell, we remove 5 gallons (2-3lbs) of litter from the water.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Blue2Blue Conservation reputation is growing steadily within the Saint Louis region. We began with a very grass roots mentality and as we continue to host community cleanups and ask for volunteer aid, the word is spreading. Facebook and Instagram are the two social platforms we advertise our efforts on and along with that and word of mouth, we are becoming more known amongst the conservation groups in the area.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Cleaning litter from waterways, especially in Midwest heat/cold and tough terrain, can be daunting at times and even a little dangerous. But more importantly it can be frustrating. There are many occasions that we will clean a particular area and then a week later we will check on it and it will be flushed with garbage again. Returning and recleaning over and over again can put a lot of doubt in your mind and make you wonder if doing this at all is worth it. Cleaning an environment where politicians and economy takes centerstage before clean water and air can be challenging, but we know that the more we do this type of work, the more others become aware of the problem and it can create a cascade effect for people to want to make a difference in the end.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.blue2blueconservation.com
• Instagram: Blue2Blue Conservation
• Facebook: Blue2Blue Conservation

Image Credits
All images are property of Blue2Blue Conservation