A massive and growing environmental issue is trash and plastic being dumped into the oceans. Bits of plastic and trash are being ingested by wildlife which in turn are being ingested by people. A company called 4Ocean says they clean up the shorelines in Texas, Bali, Florida, and Haiti and sell bracelets they say came from ocean plastics.

The company was started by two surfers who on a surf trip found plastic in the ocean and wanted to do something about it. 4Ocean is a for profit company. According to an article from WUSA9, “They told us 4Ocean completed their accreditation in May. They have an A rating and 0 complaints.They also said that the company has submitted documentation to substantiate all of its ocean cleanup events and the money invested in these efforts.” 4Ocean is paying fisherman to collect trash instead of fishing.

The company says for every bracelet purchased one pound of trash would be collected. While it is nice to have a bracelet, are there too many resources being used in order to make it? This company is doing good work, why can’t they turn it into a non profit organization?  A for profit is an organization that makes money and a non profit is an organization that doesn’t make money, but operates on money from government or donations for supporters.

There are non profits running clean ups in Oregon. One organization is SOLVE.

The links to these organizations are easily found with any web search.