Could 4Ocean solve the ocean plastic crisis?
4Ocean’s mission to end the ocean plastic crisis sounds like a noble cause and as a conservationist, SCUBA diver, and overall ocean lover, it’s one I want to get behind. I want to believe they truly desire to clean every piece of plastic from the ocean and that they’re capable of doing so, but unfortunately, they don’t make this easy. As I looked into their operation, I began to see articles from ocean experts critiquing them. They have been accused of prioritizing their own profits, using misleading ad campaigns, and posting inaccurate numbers of plastic pulled from the ocean by both environmentalists and former employees. I used to admire 4Ocean, but the more I read, and the more I thought about their strategy, the more my opinions changed.
Currently, you can purchase a 4Ocean bracelet for $24 that will result in five pounds of plastic being pulled from the ocean. But there is no mention of how much of that $24 actually goes towards the ocean cleanup. They are not transparent with how the money they receive is used. They don’t disclose how much goes towards ocean cleanups and how much they take. In general, I have no problem with ‘for profit’ environmental companies, but I want them to be open and honest with how much they give back to the environmental projects they use to advertise their products. When I see a company like this hide their numbers it doesn’t give me much confidence they’re using the money for the right reasons.
This leads me to believe 4Ocean’s motives do not align with typical ocean advocates. Their marketing teams go to great lengths to portray them as saviors of the ocean, and saints who protect the seas, but it seems like that narrative stops with the marketing team. 4Ocean appears to be more concerned with their own image than with the health of the oceans. It’s hard to tell where their loyalty lies. They may care about the oceans, or they may care about the ocean’s ability to market their products. Who knows.
But even if 4Ocean’s intentions were pure, I still can’t see how their efforts could solve the plastic crisis. The 4Ocean strategy of pulling plastic from the ocean, reshaping it into a bracelet, and selling it so it can inevitably make its way back to the water, seems counterintuitive. It’s a never-ending loop, like putting bucket after bucket under a leaky roof instead of just fixing the roof. On top of this, each day we are producing close to 1 million tons of plastic, and each day approximately 8 million pieces of that plastic are dumped into the ocean. No cleanup project could compete with those numbers.
It would be convenient if missions like 4Ocean’s could solve the crisis our oceans face, but that’s unlikely. The only way to solve this crisis is to end plastic production rather than standing under it with a bunch of buckets. So, please don’t buy a bracelet to ‘save the ocean’ and pat yourself on the back for doing your part. Instead, stop using plastic and try to convince others to do the same.
