4Ocean bracelets: volunteers clean the ocean from plastic

Today, humankind has left behind more than six billion tons of plastic waste. Yes, land debris can still be recycled, but with the seas and oceans it is not so simple - under the influence of sunlight, the plastic disintegrates into micro-particles and spreads throughout the World Ocean.

Plastic pollution of the oceans has reached enormous proportions. According to various sources, from 8 to 9.5 million tons of plastic waste is annually released into the World Ocean. As a result, a Pacific trash patch is formed between California and Hawaii, which is also called the "Eastern Garbage Patch."

In addition, plastic annually kills millions of marine inhabitants. It is established that 700 species suffered from it, including endangered ones. Some of them have suffered significant damage: animals are entangled to death in abandoned fishing nets or plastic holders for beer cans. The sufferings of others are not so obvious. Sea animals of all sizes, from zooplankton to whales, began to feed on microplastics — plastic particles no larger than five millimeters in size. The problem of plastic pollution should be discussed as widely as global warming. At the Nairobi Summit last December, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme called this problem “ocean armageddon.”

Studies show that now at least 352 million tons of waste has accumulated in the Pacific garbage patch. Scientists estimate that there is so much rubbish that the spot is twice the size of France.

That is why a team of 4Ocean surfing volunteers from Florida (USA) launched an initiative to clear the ocean.

The 4Ocean eco-friendly initiative has been around for a little over a year. During this time, it has united several thousand like-minded people around the world who want to save the ocean from plastic.

Alex Schulze and Andrew Cooper arrived in Bali to surf. Here they could not help noticing the huge amount of plastic garbage to which local residents did not react. They decided to collect plastic, make bracelets from it, and direct the funds from their sale to the development of the initiative.

Selling a single bracelet allows volunteers to remove 0.45 kg of garbage from the ocean. In less than two years, it was possible to remove more than 370 tons of garbage from the oceans and coastlines. Now the 4Ocean team consists of more than 150 people.

Project participants are actively talking about the dangers of pollution of the oceans. Each month, the new color of the bracelet draws attention to the species of flora and fauna that are particularly sensitive to pollution. Coral-colored bracelets were released in defence of coral reefs, blue products attracted attention to whales and dolphins, lime-colored bracelets reminded of sea turtles.

This team utilizes the state of the art technology to remove trash from the ocean and coastlines. They are aimed to educate every single person on the impact that plastic has on the ocean to raise awareness and change attitude.

Each bracelet purchase will remove one pound of trash from the ocean and coastlines! To buy bracelets and get more information, please, visit https://4ocean.com/collections/all-products.