Latest / How To Protect The Ocean / How 4ocean Turned Bracelets Into 50 Million Pounds of Ocean Trash Removed

Transcript

How 4ocean Turned Bracelets Into 50 Million Pounds of Ocean Trash Removed · How To Protect The Ocean

• 0:00
  Imagine you're a surfer and you're sitting along the beach in Bali,
• 0:04
  Indonesia, one of the, probably the primo hotspots for surfing.
• 0:08
  I'm not a surfer, but I've heard a lot of great things.
• 0:11
  I'm a diver, and I've heard that's a great place as well.
• 0:13
  But then you start to notice that while you're in the water, there's
• 0:17
  a crap ton of garbage and plastic floating around in the water.
• 0:21
  If you're a diver underwater, you'll also find that just kind of floating around.
• 0:26
  It takes away the beauty of surfing or even diving underwater of all the reefs
• 0:30
  and all the beauty that you see while you're sitting on your board waiting for
• 0:34
  the next wave or chatting with a friend who's on a board as well as you're about
• 0:38
  to, you know, take turns riding a wave.
• 0:40
  Then you decide what could we do to help this?
• 0:43
  A lot of people are like, "I wonder if somebody's cleaning this
• 0:45
  up." And let's be honest, a lot of governments aren't cleaning up a lot
• 0:49
  of this plastic that's coming in.
• 0:50
  We don't know who's responsible for this plastic.
• 0:53
  It could be, anywhere from around the world where this plastic is coming from.
• 0:56
  They've been traced to go from Canada all the way to Asia and
• 1:00
  vice versa, and everywhere.
• 1:01
  And it really just depends on where the currents go.
• 1:03
  We heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and you hear like the five gyres
• 1:07
  and the plastic floats in these five gyres, and they kinda congregate there.
• 1:10
  But it still washes up on shore, and somebody's gotta
• 1:13
  clean it up at some point.
• 1:15
  In comes the 4Ocean founders, Alex Schulze and Andrew Cooper.
• 1:20
  In 2017, they founded 4Oceans and have now surpassed 50 million pounds of plastic
• 1:26
  and trash removed from oceans, rivers, and coastlines as of February 20, 2026.
• 1:32
  That is a huge amount of plastic that's done, starting off from one video
• 1:37
  that went viral, and selling bracelets, and eventually apparel, and using
• 1:42
  corporate sponsorships and then some grants and donations, eventually, to
• 1:46
  pick up 50 million pounds of plastic.
• 1:48
  And that is an insane amount.
• 1:50
  That is wonderful.
• 1:51
  I remember a couple years ago, I interviewed Alex
• 1:54
  Schulze, who was phenomenal.
• 1:55
  He was fantastic.
• 1:56
  I will link to the show notes.
• 1:58
  But today on the podcast, we're gonna be talking about why it's so important
• 2:02
  that 4Oceans exists as a business, and what they've been able to accomplish
• 2:06
  in that business to show you that it is possible to turn something as gross, I
• 2:11
  guess, as picking up ocean plastic from the water, to make it into a profitable
• 2:15
  business that does a good thing.
• 2:18
  And you have this social enterprise and B Corp that has really been able
• 2:21
  to build a great model and show people what you can actually do, and either
• 2:25
  replicate that model with plastic or something else where you can do some good
• 2:29
  for the ocean and good for the planet.
• 2:31
  So we're gonna talk about that on today's episode of the How to Protect
• 2:33
  the Ocean podcast, where we talk about ocean news and fun things that happen
• 2:37
  in the ocean, and some not so fun things that happen to the ocean, and
• 2:39
  the people who are finding solutions to do something on a daily basis right
• 2:42
  here, Monday to Friday, on this podcast.
• 2:45
  So if you are interested in this kinda stuff and this is your first time here,
• 2:47
  or you've been listening to this for a while and you actually haven't hit
• 2:50
  that follow button, now is the time to hit that follow button, because we're
• 2:53
  gonna be talking about businesses and electric motors on boats and how to
• 2:59
  earn a living wage using like doing something on a coastline all during
• 3:03
  this week, and next week we're gonna be talking something different, but
• 3:07
  it has to be all about ocean news.
• 3:09
  So it's gonna be fun.
• 3:09
  I'd love for you to take part.
• 3:11
  Don't forget to follow so you don't miss any episode.
• 3:13
  If you wanna support the podcast and all the work that I do on YouTube
• 3:16
  as well as on TikTok and Instagram and Facebook, you can do so, and
• 3:21
  LinkedIn of course, you can do so by going to speakupforblue.com/patreon
• 3:26
  and join our Patreon community there.
• 3:28
  That would be wonderful.
• 3:29
  Okay, let's talk 4Ocean.
• 3:30
  So Andrew Schulz now is the sole owner and CEO of the business.
• 3:34
  Like I said, he surpassed 50 million pounds of plastic as of February 20th,
• 3:39
  2026, and basically, him and his original founders basically showed
• 3:42
  how you can create a for-profit business and do something good for
• 3:46
  the ocean by picking up plastic.
• 3:47
  And this is not like where he promised he would clean up
• 3:50
  the ocean by 2030 or by 2050.
• 3:53
  All he's doing is having one simple thing.
• 3:56
  He's like, "For every bracelet you buy, we're gonna pick up one
• 3:59
  pound of trash, or five pounds of trash depending on the product line
• 4:02
  that you buy and time of year."
• 4:04
  And so by being able to tying something tangible with each product makes it
• 4:10
  really worthwhile, and I know a number of people here in my local area of
• 4:14
  Burlington, Ontario, who have been able to purchase bracelets and have been
• 4:18
  proud to show me, a marine biologist, to be like, "Hey, look what I'm doing.
• 4:21
  I'm helping protect the ocean just by buying a bracelet." It democratizes
• 4:25
  cleaning up plastic in the ocean, just like 4Oceans is doing by saying,
• 4:28
  "Hey, I bought a bracelet just to make sure that we pick up one pound
• 4:32
  of plastic, and I'll buy more.
• 4:33
  I bought some for the kids, I bought some for my wife, I bought whatever."
• 4:35
  That is a huge thing.
• 4:36
  That makes people feel like they're a part of something even though they're
• 4:40
  not actually doing the action, and I think that's a really important aspect.
• 4:43
  And 4Oceans is not just like a public benefit corporation, a
• 4:46
  certified B Corp. That's huge.
• 4:48
  That's great that they are.
• 4:49
  But what they are is they come in and they, say like they have a headquarters in
• 4:53
  Florida, but they have an office in Bali.
• 4:55
  And what they do is they don't just hire Americans to work there, they hire
• 4:59
  people from Bali, people who are going to benefit from not only taking out the
• 5:04
  plastic, 'cause they're gonna have to do it, that office is gonna have to do
• 5:07
  it, but also being paid livable wages so that they can continue to do that and
• 5:12
  they don't have to look for another job.
• 5:14
  It's creating a business that can have their employees contribute to the economy
• 5:18
  by buying things and taking care of their family and all that kind of stuff.
• 5:21
  Plus, they put in infrastructure for recycling plants and everything so to
• 5:25
  divvy up and separate out the garbage from the recycling and what they can
• 5:28
  use to build the bracelets as well as any of the other apparel that they have.
• 5:32
  And it's great.
• 5:33
  And so they have this infrastructure there from offices and headquarters
• 5:37
  and all that kind of stuff, and I think it's really great.
• 5:39
  They do it in Haiti as well.
• 5:40
  They have other places around the world that they work, and they're
• 5:43
  working to essentially build up this infrastructure to pick up trash.
• 5:48
  And I think that's wonderful.
• 5:50
  And just like the story at the beginning of this episode, the founders were
• 5:54
  looking at beaches in Bali in 2015.
• 5:56
  They noticed that while they were surfing is, there was a lot of plastic
• 5:59
  in there, and they said, "You know what?
• 6:00
  Can we do it in a business and not just a nonprofit?" ' Cause the thing is,
• 6:03
  like when you have like traditional nonprofit, the grant funding
• 6:06
  cleanup models struggle to sustain year-round daily operational funding.
• 6:10
  It's very difficult to do that.
• 6:11
  It's very difficult to be able to sustain those operations at the
• 6:15
  level that you need to do and be able to fulfill what you want to do.
• 6:19
  In this case, it's cleaning up coastlines and rivers and the ocean.
• 6:22
  So being able to have a for-profit business, being able to sell goods to
• 6:27
  pick up other things that are in the ocean, like plastics, it's amazing.
• 6:30
  And if you go on their social media site, you'll see videos of them going to
• 6:34
  different places in Indonesia, like in Bali or, around the US or in India and
• 6:39
  other places around the world where rivers are just congested with floating plastic.
• 6:44
  Sometimes they're big pieces, sometimes they're little pieces, and you actually
• 6:47
  watch them complete, so you get that social proof that they're actually
• 6:51
  doing this work And you're actually looking at them taking a river that's
• 6:54
  completely congested with plastic pollution, and they clean it all
• 6:57
  up, and they show like how it goes in like within a certain time frame.
• 7:01
  So they kind of fast-forward everything, and you get to watch them clean it all
• 7:04
  up, and by the end it's all clean.
• 7:05
  Now, that could fill up again because the infrastructure still needs help.
• 7:09
  This shows that you can clean up a beach, that you can clean up a river,
• 7:12
  you can clean up a coastline, but you can't prevent the plastic from going in.
• 7:16
  And that's where it partners with other organizations to work on policies
• 7:19
  to ensure that waste management is done properly, not only in the US
• 7:23
  and in Canada, but also around the world, especially where they work.
• 7:26
  'Cause there's a reason why they wanna continue to do this business.
• 7:29
  They wanted to create is like, is trying to purchase like a measurable, verifiable
• 7:32
  outcome, like a specific weight of plastic removed for everything that's bought.
• 7:36
  It gives consumers something to kind of sink their teeth into.
• 7:39
  Now, some of the interesting things that happened, like it took 18 months to reach
• 7:43
  the first million pounds removed, and the company is now roughly moving 1.2 to 1.3
• 7:48
  million pounds per year because it's been able to grow and work in different places.
• 7:52
  And the model has scaled to 12-plus cleanup locations
• 7:55
  across the US, Guatemala, Indonesia, and previously Haiti.
• 7:59
  So that's huge to see how these areas are expanding.
• 8:02
  And when they expand, they have offices in these areas, so it's not just like
• 8:05
  they're coming in, taking it out once and then leaving and then watching it refill.
• 8:09
  This is a constant thing that's happening.
• 8:11
  And now, like in 2026, 4Ocean is launching an impact dashboard platform
• 8:16
  that's supposed to give corporate partners traceable, verifiable
• 8:19
  insight into their funded impact.
• 8:21
  So an example of the transparency demands that consumers are placing
• 8:25
  on cleanup as a business model.
• 8:27
  It's not just to say, "Hey, we're gonna clean up a pound of
• 8:28
  trash." It's easy to say that.
• 8:30
  To do that is harder.
• 8:32
  But it's easy to say, "I can… I'll clean up a pound of trash.
• 8:34
  Sure, no problem. I'll just go in my neighborhood, pick it up."
• 8:36
  But to be able to film it, to be able to actually show the documentation of
• 8:40
  it happening, that's a huge thing.
• 8:42
  And look, let's be honest, like there's no government model or
• 8:44
  mandate that's driving this model.
• 8:46
  It exists because consumer demand and corporate sustainability
• 8:49
  partnerships, which raise a fair question around the limits of reliant
• 8:53
  on purchasing power rather than policy to fund the ocean cleanup.
• 8:57
  Here's the thing.
• 8:58
  The bracelets fund it and, apparel fund it, but , I guess, the downside
• 9:01
  of it, is that they're recycling materials to make the apparel, but
• 9:04
  then the apparel will eventually go into the garbage, and then will it be
• 9:07
  contributing to more ocean pollution?
• 9:09
  But at least we're delaying it for a little bit, so there's
• 9:11
  still a problem with that.
• 9:12
  But even like, companies like Patagonia recognize that selling apparel causes
• 9:16
  more waste, even if they're recycling it.
• 9:18
  And so there is that pushback when I speak to people about these types
• 9:22
  of companies, and be like, "Well, yeah, but they're just delaying the
• 9:24
  inevitable of this stuff coming in."
• 9:25
  But we need to reuse a lot of this material.
• 9:27
  And to be able to reuse it and sell it where there's something good coming out of
• 9:31
  it, I think is worthwhile in this regard.
• 9:34
  And I would love to hear your thoughts on this, because it's important that we
• 9:38
  clean stuff up, but if it's putting it in bothers you, I completely understand,
• 9:42
  but I would love to hear your thoughts on that and why that's happening.
• 9:45
  Now, if you wanna participate in this, you can go to 4 oceans, you can go to their
• 9:47
  website, you can buy a bracelet or other apparel, and you can participate in this.
• 9:51
  If you're gonna look for another cleanup organization, maybe a smaller
• 9:54
  one, just make sure that they publish independently audited impact numbers,
• 9:58
  so not just the self-reported totals.
• 10:00
  ' Cause it's really easy to fudge these things because there's money involved.
• 10:03
  You wanna make sure that, like, if you're starting that kind of business, you
• 10:06
  wanna make sure somebody, like, from a third party independent auditor actually
• 10:09
  looks at doing this kind of stuff, because I think that's really important.
• 10:12
  And of course, understand the difference between prevention
• 10:14
  models, and then extraction models.
• 10:16
  So removing after the fact, but also preventing, like, stopping plastic
• 10:20
  before it enters the waterways, stopping the use of plastic, policies that
• 10:24
  take away single-use plastic use.
• 10:26
  All those kind of things really, really help.
• 10:28
  And it's worth knowing which company you should be donating or funding in
• 10:32
  that time frame when you look at that.
• 10:34
  And of course, consider buying a product is one form of support.
• 10:36
  But corporate partnerships and policy pressure will move volumes
• 10:40
  than individual purchases alone.
• 10:42
  So obviously, if you have companies like this, corporate sponsorship is
• 10:44
  what really moves the needle, but individual sponsorships and individual
• 10:48
  purchases really, really help.
• 10:49
  You just have to get to the volume that you need to be able to make a difference
• 10:53
  and really get to a point where you can be satisfied with what you want.
• 10:56
  But, you know, congratulations to Alex Schulze and all his founders, and
• 11:00
  the people who are working there now, because 50 million pounds of plastic
• 11:03
  and trash removed is huge from the oceans, and I really respect what
• 11:07
  they've been able to accomplish.
• 11:08
  And the way they've been able to talk about it on social media, I
• 11:11
  think they've used social media and a lot of the social media platforms
• 11:14
  as they were growing in popularity.
• 11:16
  And I think that's an important aspect, and, you know, being in the right place at
• 11:20
  the right time and As someone who works as an ocean communications manager and works
• 11:24
  with a lot of startups and businesses, having a communications plan before you
• 11:29
  move forward, and talk to people and try and get donations or investment money
• 11:33
  and angel investors is really important.
• 11:36
  And that's what this company did.
• 11:37
  That's how they were able to sell out of bracelets after their first video.
• 11:40
  Don't expect to go viral, but definitely expect to have a communications
• 11:43
  platform and strategy to be able to talk about your business.
• 11:46
  So anyway, just a, little shop talk.
• 11:48
  And I've got an announcement next week where we're gonna be talking
• 11:51
  about this podcast not some changes you'll hear, but some changes
• 11:55
  for me that have benefited me.
• 11:56
  So, we're gonna hear more about that next week.
• 11:59
  So stay tuned, follow if you can, if you want.
• 12:02
  Please do follow so you don't miss next week's episodes.
• 12:04
  We got one more episode before the interview with Alexander Mangione
• 12:07
  talking about EV motors on boats.
• 12:09
  So it's gonna be exciting.
• 12:11
  But stay tuned for tomorrow, because tomorrow we're gonna be
• 12:14
  talking about how living wages work on coastal conservation work.
• 12:17
  So that's gonna be a lot of fun to talk about that, something
• 12:19
  that's very dear to my heart.
• 12:21
  So yeah, stay tuned.
• 12:22
  Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode.
• 12:24
  If you wanna support us, go to speakupforblue.com/patreon.
• 12:29
  You've been listening to the How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
• 12:31
  I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.
• 12:32
  Have a great day.
• 12:32
  We'll talk to you next time, and happy conservation.