Western Pa. anglers aim to make it easier for outdoor enthusiasts to collect trash

Hunter Klobucar and Tyler Waltenbaugh spent the summer of 2018 crossing the deep woods and backwaters of northern Pennsylvania, along the Route 6 corridor, and while their purpose was to study the natural habitat of brook trout, one particularly unnatural feature kept showing up: trash.

“We’re in all these remote places, streams and lakes, places that men and women have never even set foot before,” said Klobucar, 22, a Harrison City native. “And every place we visited, we saw trash and garbage and plastic.”

Both men are fly fishermen — and they know how many millions of people across the country share their passion for the outdoors. Klobucar and Waltenbaugh wondered if they could come up with a product to help take advantage of those numbers and, at the same time, reduce waste.

That’s how they came to form their company, Fish Gods, and developed the Clean Earth Bag, a durable, tear-resistant, washable, drainable, foldable way to make a small corner of the wild a little bit cleaner.

Waltenbaugh, 24, of Leechburg said they needed a product outdoor enthusiasts would take with them.

“It can’t be cumbersome at all,” he said of the collapsible design and straps that allow the bag to hang from a belt loop, canoe cleat or backpack. “When you’re in the outdoors, you have a million things going on. The last thing you want is something that’s a hindrance to your experience.”

The duo came up with a rough, 3-D printed prototype and began taking it with them on trips and showing it to friends and colleagues in the outdoors industry.

“We were talking with other enthusiasts, sending out mass surveys about what would suit anglers, what size they’d want, what features they’d want,” Waltenbaugh said. “Really, our product is the result of a problem and us trying to be the solution to that problem.”

The Clean Earth Bag is designed to be no-fuss, no-mess, Klobucar said, with the goal of making it as simple as possible to see a piece of trash and dispose of it easily.

“That’s what kind of sets our bag apart from toting around a plastic bag or a garbage bag,” he said. “They snag, they tear, they’re awkward to carry.”

On the strength of their design, Klobucar and Waltenbaugh got a first-place prize of $5,000 from the Ben Franklin Technology Partners’ TechCelerator program of Erie. In August, BFTP — which connects startups and established technology companies with a network of funding, business and technical expertise — provided further funding to help produce Clean Earth Bags and help the company launch.

In late October, Klobucar and Waltenbaugh initiated a Kickstarter campaign, with the goal of raising $16,000 by Nov. 19. As of Nov. 2, they are only about $1,000 short.

“We haven’t given away any equity in our company, and we’re really proud of that,” Waltenbaugh said. “And Ben Franklin Technology Partners has really helped us to get the grants we needed to make it this far.”

Both men see the Clean Earth Bag as a tool to raise awareness about humans’ responsibility for the environment.

“That’s only step one,” Waltenbaugh said.

“We really do have some large plans for after this Kickstarter,” Klobucar said. “We realized that this industry, fishermen and outdoor enthusiasts, there are so many of us who take part in hunting and fishing, who visit these waters and woods, who see this devastation happening.

“If we just take part in this movement, picking up one bag’s worth of trash a year, we could clean up 47 million pounds of plastic, which is drastic.”

And with the Clean Earth Bag, the men behind Fish Gods are hoping to make that a reality and put one in the gear bag of every hunter, fisher and hiker they can reach.

“It’s there when you need it, and it’s stowed when you don’t,” Waltenbaugh said.

For more, see FishGods.co or visit the Fish Gods Kickstarter page.