Oceans Under Siege
The ocean covers approximately 71 percent of the Earth’s surface, and makes up about 99 percent of the planet’s living space by volume. Given the size of the ocean relative to the space humans occupy on land, people have been living under the assumption that the effects of pollution would always be negligible.
No matter how many chemicals and pollutants were dumped in, people lived by the catchphrase: "The solution to pollution is dilution."
However, the accumulation of oceanic pollution has resulted in islands of literal garbage forming in the ocean, the most notable being a thousand mile wide mass known as the Great Pacific garbage patch.
In order to meet the global demand for a massive oceanwide cleanup, entrepreneurs Andrew Cooper and Alex Schulze founded 4ocean, a company whose mission is to solve the world’s ocean plastic crisis.
Based in Boca Raton, 4ocean has been primarily focused on digital marketing and product development which has allowed for instantaneous and rapid growth. 4ocean sells merchandise to fund their projects, including their quintessential 4ocean bracelet.
With the money they raise, they have been conducting global ocean and coastline cleanups. In less than two years, 4ocean has removed 5,403,077 pounds of trash from the ocean and coastlines.
Additionally, as 4ocean furthers their product development, they aim to release a set of products that will help consumers cut down on single use plastic as well as everyday goods that are made from the recycled materials collected in their ocean cleanups. 4ocean currently employs over 300 people in the US, Indonesia, and Haiti, and just announced they will be opening a new office in Austin, Texas that will staff another 35 more employees.
While cleaning the ocean is a daunting task due to its massive proportions, the growth of 4ocean and its efforts to reverse the process of ocean pollution offers promise for the future.
Written by Derek Chiang, Edited by Alex Sheen & Alexander Fleiss