4ocean

4ocean is an American company that cleans the ocean of garbage. Funded by selling items made from reclaimed plastic. The company undertakes to remove half a kilogram of garbage from the ocean and from the coast for each bracelet sold. In addition to bracelets, they sell bottles for drinks and various clothes.

4Ocean was founded by Alex Schulze and Andrew Cooper, who, on a trip to Bali, Indonesia, noticed the beaches were filled with plastic waste; Schulze and Cooper witnessed fishermen pushing their boats through mounds of plastic in order to get to more open waters. Upon learning that plastic waste accumulated on the province's coastlines due to the currents of the ocean, they began to explore ideas of widespread cleanup operations.

Schulze and Cooper created 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 18 million pounds of waste from various oceans and coastlines since its inception. As of January 2019, over 200 people were employed by the company. A transparency disclosure released through the B Corporation indicated that in 2020, due to COVID-19, the company had been forced to lay off 136 of its 179 employees.