4ocean

4ocean is a for-profit company founded in Boca Raton, Florida, in 2017 that sells bracelets made mostly from recycled materials, as well as apparel and other merchandise for which the materials are environmentally and socially responsibly sourced.[1] The company uses a portion of the profits to remove one pound of trash from the ocean and coastlines for each bracelet that is sold in an effort to eliminate plastic pollution in oceans.[2] The company has developed cleanup operations in Indonesia, Haiti, Florida and Guatemala.[3][4][5]

4ocean

Type	Private
Industry	Clothing Environmentalism
Founded	January 4, 2017 (2017-01-04)
Founders	Alex Schulze Andrew Cooper
Headquarters	Boca Raton, Florida, United States
Products	Bracelets, water bottles, clothing
Number of employees	200 (2019)
Website	4ocean.com

History

4ocean started when two recent college graduates, Alex Schulze and Andrew Cooper[2] on a trip to Bali, Indonesia,[1] where the beaches were filled with plastic waste. When told that the waste piles on the coastlines when the currents bring polluted plastic to the shore, they began to explore ideas to increase widespread cleanup operations[2]. Schulze and Cooper were inspired by witnessing fisherman pushing through mounds of plastic in the ocean to get their fishing boats to more open waters.[6] They began to create a business model that allowed for volunteers to have access to the supplies and resources necessary for the retraction and disposal of waste found in the water and along coastlines[1].

4ocean claims to have removed more than eight million pounds of waste from the various oceans and coastlines since its inception.[7] As of January 2019, over 200 people are employed by the company.[3]

Business model

4ocean is a commercial for-profit business that is funded by the sales of their online products[7]. These funds are distributed to fund cleanup operations and provide deep-sea cleaning equipment, and for every $20 of turnover, 4ocean employees recover one pound of plastic waste from the oceans[8].

Awards

• 4ocean won the Surfer magazine “Agent of Change Award”.[9]
• The founders of 4ocean were named in the Forbes magazine “30 Under 30 — Social Entrepreneurs 2019” List.[10]
• The founders of 4ocean were named to the “201“ Creative Class” by Newsweek.[11]
• The new Guinness World Record was placed for Largest Under Water Clean Up in June 2019 which included 633 divers.[8]

See also

• Marine pollution
• Sustainability
• Plastic pollution
• Microplastics

References

1. Jr, Tom Huddleston (2018-09-07). "4Ocean's surfer founders cleaned up 1 million pounds of ocean garbage". CNBC. Retrieved 2019-03-07.
2. "These millennials started a business to rid the world's". Today (NBC). Today (NBC). Retrieved 25 August 2018.
3. Bakkalapulo, Maria. "This South Florida Company Wants To Clean The Seas - And Prove It Can Make Money Doing It". WLRN-TV. PBS. Retrieved 2019-03-07.
4. "4ocean/Our impact". 4ocean. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
5. "4ocean Has Removed More Than 7 Million Pounds Of Trash, Expands Bracelet-Funded Cleanups To Central America". Forbes. 29 January 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
6. "Entrepreneurs pay fishermen to collect plastic". Fox 13. Fox 13. Retrieved 25 August 2018.
7. "4ocean Gives Ocean Plastic a Monetary Value to Incentivize People Globally to Change Their Behavior". The Surf Channel. Action Sport Networks. Archived from the original on 25 April 2019. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
8. 4ocean. "New Guinness World Record - 4ocean Helps Set the Mark for Largest Underwater Cleanup!". 4ocean. Retrieved 2019-06-28.
9. "Agents of Change Archives". SURFER Magazine. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
10. "4Ocean". Forbes. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
11. "The Creative Class 2019". Newsweek. Archived from the original on 25 April 2019. Retrieved 21 February 2019.