The 1-Percent Pledge: How Every-Sale Giving Scales River Cleanup

Every time you buy a NuRich bottle or lid, at least one percent of that sale goes toward cleaning a river. Not sometimes. Not during a special promotion. Every single order, automatically. Here’s why that model matters more than a one-time check.

How the 1-Percent Pledge Works

NuRich builds the donation into its operating costs, not the checkout screen. There is no round-up prompt, no add-a-dollar box, no limited-edition charity product. One percent of every sale is allocated to river cleanup and conservation before profit is calculated. That means the commitment scales with the business itself—more orders, more impact, without anyone having to remember to opt in.

Why a Percentage Beats a One-Time Donation

A single large donation makes headlines, but it stops working the day it’s spent. A standing percentage creates a funding stream that grows alongside revenue. During a strong month, cleanup crews get more support. During a slow month, they still get support. The consistency lets partner organizations plan ahead instead of scrambling between grant cycles.

It also removes the decision fatigue that stalls most giving. Research from behavioral economics shows that automatic, built-in contributions outperform opt-in models because they don’t rely on a person choosing to act at the exact right moment. The giving just… happens.

Where the Money Actually Goes

NuRich’s first adopted waterway is the Mulberry River near Winder, Georgia—a 28-mile tributary of the Middle Oconee. Funds support organized cleanups that pull tires, cans, plastic bags, and other debris from the water and banks. According to research published in Science Advances, more than 1,000 rivers are responsible for roughly 80 percent of riverine plastic entering the ocean (Meijer et al., 2021). Working upstream on smaller tributaries like the Mulberry intercepts waste before it reaches larger systems.

The Reusable Connection

There is a direct loop here. Single-use plastic bottles are among the most common items found during river cleanups. The EPA estimates that PET bottle and jar recycling sits around 29 percent—meaning the majority of single-use bottles produced never make it back into the recycling stream. Every reusable bottle that replaces a case of disposables is fewer items that could end up in a waterway. Buying the bottle funds the cleanup. Using the bottle prevents the problem. Both happen in the same transaction.

What This Doesn’t Mean

The 1-percent pledge is not a carbon-offset scheme, and NuRich does not claim that buying a water bottle erases anyone’s environmental footprint. It is a straightforward funding mechanism: a percentage of revenue goes to river cleanup, verified and ongoing. No inflated impact numbers, no vague promises about “giving back.” Just a standing commitment baked into the price of the product.

How You Fit In

You do not need to do anything extra. If you were already planning to buy a bottle or replace a lid, the pledge is already working. Your order funds cleanup crews pulling debris out of a real river in Georgia. If you want to go further, refilling your bottle instead of buying disposable ones compounds the effect—less plastic produced, less plastic in the water, and ongoing funding for the people pulling out what’s already there.

Shop NuRich

The 32 oz NuRich bottle ($29.99) and the 18 oz NuRich bottle ($14.99) both carry the 1-percent pledge. Every order supports river cleanup—no opt-in required.

NuRich donates at least 1% of every sale to river cleanup and conservation. Specific program details, including partner organizations and fund allocation, are managed by NuRich and may evolve over time. This post describes the pledge model as it currently operates.

Sources: Meijer et al., “More Than 1000 Rivers Account for 80% of Global Riverine Plastic Emissions,” Science Advances, 2021 • EPA, “Containers and Packaging: Product-Specific Data,” 2020 • Wikipedia, “Mulberry River (Georgia)”