In honor of World Oceans Day today, 8 June, we wanted to take a look at a company that was working to help the oceans. 4Ocean produces bracelets made from recycled materials that fund the removal of trash from the ocean and coastlines.
The company has noted how the purchase of one bracelet equates to the removal of one pound of trash, and in less than two years, they have removed 629,942 pounds of trash from the oceans and coastlines.
The company was founded by Andrew Cooper and Alex Schulze. The duo were in Bali on a surf trip, and we’ll let 4Ocean take it from here.
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“Devastated by the amount of plastic in the ocean, Andrew and Alex set out to find out why no one was doing anything about it. One afternoon, they came across an old fishing village where fishermen were literally pushing their boat through piles of plastic that had washed up on shore. The two surfers explained to the fishermen that someone has to do something about this if they want to continue fishing or there would be no fish left. They even continued to explain their fishing nets are the perfect tool to gather the plastic from the ocean. ‘But we don’t get paid to collect plastic,’ they said, ‘we get paid to catch fish.’ This line stuck with the two surfers, and they knew it was time to hit the drawing board.”
4Ocean continued, “After realizing the demand for seafood was driving the fishermen to focus on fish instead of plastic, they knew they had to create something that could fund the desired cleanup efforts. This is how the 4Ocean Bracelet was born.”
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4Ocean currently operates out of multiple countries – from Florida to Indonesia – and employs over 150 people worldwide.
Shop 4Ocean bracelets at 4ocean.com.
