Divers during the Osborne Reef Tire Cleanup
If someone told you they planned to sell bracelets and other wares to fund ocean cleanups, would you believe it? Would you believe it would result in more than 20 million pounds of plastic and trash collected from oceans since 2017?
It’s a milestone being celebrated by Alex Schulze and Andrew Cooper, who in 2017 founded 4ocean, a certified B Corp and Public Benefit Corporation based in Florida. That certification means the company turns a profit, but only after keeping a One Pound Promise that every item purchased funds the removal of 1 pound of trash from oceans, rivers and coastlines.
4ocean items include a line of bracelets made out of recycled materials, with cords made from recycled plastic bottles and some ocean plastic, along with charms made from 95% recycled stainless steel, and clear beads made from 95% recycled glass bottles and some reclaimed ocean glass.
The armada funded by purchases includes 25 vessels, 285 crew members and 12 operational bases in Florida and Hawaii as well as Indonesia, Haiti and Guatemala.
A 4ocean cleanup crew in Bali
“4ocean is on track to pull 1 million pounds of plastic per month in 2022, and continue to build and create a powerful movement, tackling new challenges and difficult ocean cleanup missions that the planet is continuing to face,” the company said in a statement.
Turning to Tires
With the plastic collection program in full swing, 4ocean is now working to remove millions of tires dumped into the sea decades ago in hopes of creating an artificial reef off the coast of Florida. It’s called the Osborne Reef Tire Cleanup.
“After months of research and relationship-building conversations, 4ocean was granted the licenses and permits to recover the Osborne Reef’s migrated tires,” the company says.
4ocean captains and crews are using existing resources to recover tires as they survey the area, document tire distribution and develop a detailed cleanup strategy.
Some of recovered tires have been turned into 4ocean Osborne Reef Bracelets ($29), made in part from recycled crumb rubber from the recovered tires (and audited and verified by GreenCircle).
“These bracelets will continue to provide the funding 4ocean needs to continue scaling this cleanup operation with the heavy machinery and larger boats needed to lift the tires out of the water, and overall advance their mission of ending the global ocean plastic crisis,” 4ocean leaders say.
Over time, saltwater corroded the restraints that held the tires together. Free from their bonds, ... [+]
If you want to learn more about ocean plastic solution, the company has developed a Learning Center resource for teachers, students, businesses and others.
Ocean plastic also is on the minds of WWF, which this week made a call for a world treaty to address plastic pollution.
The conservation organization, aka the World Wildlife Fund, says a recent review of close to 2,600 studies finds that “projected growth of plastic pollution is likely to result in many areas suffering significant ecological risks harming current efforts at protecting and increasing biodiversity if action is not taken now to cut global production and use of plastic.”
