During a surf trip to Bali, Indonesia, in 2015, Alex Schulze and Andrew Cooper were inspired to create their company 4ocean. While in Bali, Alex and Andrew saw the severity of the ocean plastic crisis and how detrimental it is to marine animals as well as the surrounding communities. This really had an effect on them, and they decided that they wanted to act solve this problem. As a result they created 4ocean.
4ocean hires professional, full time captains and crews in areas of the world that are heavily affected by ocean pollution to recover this waste to be recycled into new products. 4ocean now has operations in the United States, Indonesia, Haiti, and Guatemala that clean plastic and waste out of oceans seven days a week. They have a One Pound Promise to pull one pound of trash from the ocean, rivers, and coastlines for every 4ocean product purchased. Since their start in 2017, 4ocean has recovered 18,564,049 lbs of trash out of ocean, rivers, and coastlines! After removing the plastic from the ocean, it is tracked, and sent to be recycled so it can be turned into 4ocean products such as bracelets, phone cases, jewelry, apparel, as well as other items. 4ocean also sells several reusable alternatives to many types of single-use plastics. Not only are 4ocean’s products reusable and sustainable, but they also raise awareness about the ocean plastic crisis and encourage people to end their reliance on single-use plastic.
Transparency and accountability are important features for 4ocean. In order to be certain that their products are completely made from the ocean plastic that they remove, they carefully document all the recovered trash at every step of the way. This ensures that every 4ocean purchase you make is guaranteed to be completely made from recycled ocean plastic that was retrieved by 4ocean employees!
In addition to selling recycled products from the plastic that they pull out of the oceans, 4ocean is also dedicated to educating consumers about the causes and impacts of plastic pollution. They also try to educate people about ways that they can help to clean up the oceans, and even plan beach cleanups and other similar events. 4ocean has also committed to dedicating at least 1% of their gross profits to environmental nonprofit organizations through their partnership with 1% for the Planet. Since 2017, they have donated more than one million dollars to ocean-friendly organizations that are working to create positive change for the environment!
4ocean is a perfect example of how the main aspect needed to solve a problem and make the world a better place is the determination and choice to act on that need!
You can check out more about 4ocean and their mission at their website: https://www.4ocean.com/
This has always been a cool company to me. It is very interesting that they can take trash from the ocean and make jewelry that people will actually wear. I actually own a few 4ocean bracelets of my own!!
Hi! Wow, I’m so impressed by the multiple layers of innovation in this business. For example, their plan of hiring captains and crews is very clever and their process of repurposing the trash into useful/beautiful objects that also serve the purpose about raising awareness for the issue is very impressive. Overall, this is an incredibly well thought-out business!
This is really cool to me that these young men were able to create a company that is so successful that it was able to remove multi-millions of pounds of trash out of the oceans and rivers around the world. I like seeing a lot of these young entrepreneurs not just being interested in their best interest but also being concerned about others in need.