In the three years since its founding in 2017, 4ocean, a for-profit company based in Boca Raton, Florida dedicated to tackling the ocean plastic crisis, has already recovered over 11 million pounds of plastic pollution from the ocean, rivers and coastlines around the world.
A Certified B Corp and a Public Benefit Corporation, 4ocean is now moving ahead with the creation of its first products made from what the company calls 4ocean Plastic - a material produced by upcycling the certified ocean plastic recovered by the company’s professional cleanup crews.
4ocean hires full-time captains and crews to recover marine debris directly from the ocean, rivers, and coastlines 7 days a week. Unlike various other companies in the sustainability marketplace for whom tracebility can be problematic, 4ocean follows a strict documentation process that allows them to trace each and every pound of trash back to its source. The process is highly transparent: not only is the place and time the materials were recovered documented, but also by whom, and the tools and vessels that were used to do it. It is a meticulous documentation process that sets a new standard for accuracy and accountability regarding products made from upcycled ocean materials. GreenCircle Certified — an independent, third-party certification organisation — will audit and verify that the entire chain of custody of 4ocean Plastic is sourced from oceans, rivers, and coastlines.
The company’s first product will be an iPhone case. Proceeds from the products will help fund 4ocean’s global ocean cleanup operations in the future.