Bluewater and The Ocean Race collaborate to provide healthy hydration during the 14th edition
by Bluewater 21 Jan 2023 02:18 AEDT
A Bluewater Hydration Station serves purified water where toxic contaminants found increasingly in tap water such as PFAS and microplastics are removed © Josh Talbot
Bluewater, a world leading beverage company on a mission to end the need for single use plastic bottles, is pleased to announce it is providing two of its innovative hydration stations to The Ocean Race to ensure visitors to the race's Ocean Live Parks can hydrate with water as pure and healthy as nature intended.
Bluewater water purification solutions have been verified to remove contaminants from water such as hazardous PFAS and other chemicals as well as microplastics.
"We've put ending the need for single use plastic bottles and their polluting production and transportation at the heart of our business mission and we are thrilled and delighted to have found in The Ocean Race a like-minded platform that shares our vision to help create a healthier planet for future generations,' said Bluewater founder and CEO Bengt Rittri. He said far too little is known about the impact of microplastics on human health.
The Ocean Race is running a science programme during the event that will provide vital data about levels of microplastics in the seas and help stimulate greater awareness about the problems posed by plastic pollution in the ocean.
The round-the-world sailing race will measure microplastic pollution throughout the 60,000 km route, in addition to gathering information about the impact of climate change on the ocean. Water samples will be taken regularly by specialist onboard equipment to test for microplastics. The samples will later be analysed to determine which plastic product the fragments originated from (for example, a bottle or carrier bag). The Ocean Race's science programme, which is supported by 11th Hour Racing, is being ramped up at a time when the impact of human activity on the ocean is becoming more widely understood with whales, for example, found to be ingesting millions of microplastics every day.
Stefan Raimund, Science Lead at The Ocean Race, said: "A healthy ocean isn't just vital to the sport we love, it regulates the climate, provides food for billions of people and supplies half the planet's oxygen. Its decline impacts the entire world. The Ocean Race is in a unique position to supply governments and organisations with scientific evidence which can inform and influence decisions by governments."
Mr Rittri, a Swedish environmental entrepreneur who also built the world's foremost indoor air purification company BLUEAIR, now part of the Unilever group, believes everyone has the right to have access to clean water. "The climate crisis is making water scarcity one of the biggest challenges of our times. We believe the best water is that sourced and purified in local communities, not bottled in plastic and transported from faraway places.
Bluewater water purifiers use our own unique reverse osmosis technology for use at home, in HORECA environments, or in public dispenser for people on the go.,, removing up to 99.7% of bacteria and impurities as small as 0.0001 microns (about 400 times smaller than the smallest virus).
Bluewater's pioneering water purification technologyand bottles solutions have helped major events like the British Open golf tournament, the Cape Town Marathon, the Ohana music festival, and countless others including the COP27 Climate Action Innovation Zonein Sharm El-Sheikh, turn the tide on using single-use plastic bottles. Bluewater has developed a planet-friendly event ecosystem combining bottles, an eye-catching messaging platform, and digital signage options that helps event organizers replace lost revenue from banning plastic bottle sales.
As a mark of its sustainability contributions, Bluewater was honored in 2022 by IQ Magazine, one of Europe's leading publications for the festival industry, with a 2022 Green Guardian award for its unique hydration solutions. IQ Magazine's judging panel of sustainability experts said Bluewater deserves to be recognized for 'the hard work it is doing to improve sustainability in the live entertainment sector.
"Microplastics are in the air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink and subsequently are now found in the human body, including lungs, blood, and digestive system, which is very scary", said Bengt Rittri.