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. 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. The company has developed cleanup operations in Indonesia, Haiti, Florida and Guatemala.

History

4ocean started when two recent college graduates, Alex Schulze and Andrew Cooper on a trip to Bali, Indonesia, 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. 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. 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.
4ocean claims to have removed more than eight million pounds of waste from the various oceans and coastlines since its inception. As of January 2019, over 200 people are employed by the company.

Business model

4ocean is a commercial for-profit business that is funded by the sales of their online products. 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.

Awards