Sustainable Packaging
Industry Experts discuss all the new materials and ways that packaging can be more sustainable and how we can do our parts to help recycle and reuse. Sustainable Packaging is and will continue to affect us all in our daily lives. We have lots of fun and get down to the real data of what's working to help our planet!
Sustainable Packaging
37 Million Pounds of Plastic 4Ocean is cleaning our oceans CEO Alex Schulze
https://www.4ocean.com/pages/partner-home-page
How is selling bracelets helping clean our oceans?
Did you know they have removed 37 million pounds of plastic?
What can you do to help?
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-schulze-a62419145/
Check out our sponsor Orora Packaging Solutions
https://ororapackagingsolutions.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cory-connors/
I'm here to help you make your packaging more sustainable! Reach out today and I'll get back to you asap.
This podcast is an independent production and the podcast production is an original work of the author. All rights of ownership and reproduction are retained—copyright 2022.
Welcome to Sustainable Packaging with Cory Connors. Today's guest is Mr. Alex Schultze, the CEO of 4ocean. How are you, Alex? I'm
Alex Schulze:doing
Cory Connors:fantastic.
Alex Schulze:How about yourself,
Cory Connors:buddy? Doing really good. I'm so excited to have you on the show. I've been following you on social media for several years, been very impressed with what you and your team are doing to clean up our mess in the ocean and make this world a better place for our future generation. So, thank you for your time. I really appreciate it. Before we get into too many details, I want to, go into the impetus of 4ocean. How did, what's your background and how did you start this company or nonprofit?
Alex Schulze:Awesome. So I, I grew up on the west coast of Florida, on a small island and I spent almost all my time on or in the ocean. I became a licensed captain at a young age. And everything I do is revolve around the ocean. So surfing, fishing, diving, all my free time, I try and get out there and enjoy the ocean. So, I had to choose which college that I was going to go to after high school. And most of my family went to Florida State University, which is Tallahassee landlocked area. And, I didn't really like the idea of being that far from the ocean. So I heard, this college, Florida Atlantic University that you could see the ocean from the top of the buildings on campus. So I was hooked and I brought my little skiff over here to the west coast, to the east coast of Florida, and I was able to go surfing and diving and, in between classes. And it was just a really cool opportunity for me. And it was actually here that. met a really good group of guys that are, travel around with surf trips. And so we ended up going on surf trips all over to Central America, primarily Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, et cetera. And it was after graduating college that I went on a surf trip with, with one of my buddies and we went to Bali and, when we got to Bali, we had expected it to be this picturesque postcard, like beach, prestige. Each is just absolute perfect breaks and we are pretty blown away by what we saw. there was an incredibly large amount of plastic. It was on the coastlines and the shorelines there. And to the point where it was like overwhelming, like every single wave that was washing up was just an incredible amount of plastic. And. That's something that, that we were talking to local lifeguards and asking them about it. And they said, they clean up with tractors and crews every single morning, but the wind and tides are bringing more plastic in every single afternoon. So that's something that we saw it. And it was definitely a, an eye opener for us as far as the issue. With plastics and single use plastic ending up in the ocean. And we saw fishermen that were really struggling to, to be able to catch fish and to provide for their families. So we watched fish pulling mounds of plastic and just, tossing them on the other side of the nets. there was so much plastic in the water that it was really affecting their ability to catch fish. And that's when we had an idea like, Hey. How can we connect this and how can we help to fund the removal of plastic? what if we employed fishermen to collect plastic instead of catching fish? And so we brought the idea back to Florida and, came up with an idea for a product, a four ocean bracelet made from recycled materials. And we adopted a model comparable to almost like a Tom shoes. for every one for one model and we did for every bracelet sold, we'd remove one pound of trash from the ocean. And we started with that idea and it just, it took off. It went absolutely viral. We went from just, myself and my buddy to over 250 full time captains and crews in just a matter of a couple of years. And to date, I'm incredibly proud to say we removed over 37 million pounds of trash and plastic from the ocean. So it's been an incredible journey. And, to be candid with you, sustainability is not something that I studied in college. I really wasn't, I would say that I was pretty sustainable, but by all means, I still occasionally I was getting water bottles and I was getting nice coffee with plastics and straws and stuff. And I didn't really think about it that much. And I think that we're very blessed and fortunate here in the States and in developed countries to have waste management and recycling infrastructure. Thank you. That we don't see the impact of consuming all of this plastic packaging, plastic material. And so I think that was going to Bali and witnessing the stuff firsthand is what really opens opened my eyes. And it's how we've got really committed to trying to clean the ocean up as well as drive a sustainable movement around the world on how we can leverage our brand and our influence to create more sustainable models for the future and cut down the amount of plastic in the ocean.
Cory Connors:Well, excellent work and amazing 37 million pounds already. And, just in how many years has that been? Just about seven
Alex Schulze:and a half, about seven and a half years. Yes,
Cory Connors:that's totally impressive. And I met your team at circularity. 24. Okay. and one of your, team members gave me one of those bracelets and I gave it to my nine year old daughter and she wears it every day. She loves it. So thank you. Thank you for that. Not only are you, doing good deeds, but you're making good products, to, remind our next generation and our current generation what needs to be done, to improve The world really, so that's really impressive. Excellent job. Thank you
Alex Schulze:very much. And I appreciate it. I'd love to hear that the daughter loves the bracelet. That's something that we've leveraged. These is we say This we say that the bracelet is a symbol of your commitment to a cleaner ocean. that's something that we really like to dive into. And it's a reminder to try and make more sustainable choices.
Cory Connors:And I've heard other people ask her about it and say, Oh, where'd you get that? tell me about, and I think that's such a cool way to spread the message. And so yeah, great idea. Whoever thought of that. And I wanted to also talk to you about, you're doing more than just cleaning up the ocean. You are also, planting trees. and mangroves, can you talk to us about that and how is that coordinated? And, how can companies like Orora packaging sign up for something like that?
Alex Schulze:Absolutely. So we have our partnerships that we are planting, mangroves in partnership with different groups out there. We're planting corals. So, it's with a group of man and a group of coral gardeners, and we have partnered up with them to not only, out plant corals and plant mangroves, but we're also pulling trash at the same exact time. So we've done these brand collaborations where we're able to have an impact on the local environments and not only remove plastic, But also be able to do things like planting corals or planting mangroves.
Cory Connors:That's excellent. And is that all in, in Valley or is it in Florida? Is it's all
Alex Schulze:over the world. So, so yeah, the mangroves are being planted here in, in Florida. the coral is in Tahiti, as well as Fiji. so it's all over the world, we're having an impact and trying to be as global as possible and drive as much of a momentum and, as movement, as possible.
Cory Connors:That's really cool. And, incredibly necessary. my sister in law is a diver and she talks about the coral reefs a lot. And, so well done, on your efforts there. I wanted to talk to you a little bit about this has been a big, debate in the industry of packaging. Sure. because a lot of people say, well, oh, that's just, it's just fishing nets. That's in the ocean. And of course it is. A lot of fishing nets, but it's also a whole bunch of packaging. And I wanted you to clear up maybe some of the numbers there for us.
Alex Schulze:That's and I'm actually really glad that you mentioned that because that's one of the questions we get a lot is everyone says, yeah, but all this plastic in the ocean is just as fishing here. Right. And I think that there's been some videos that have come out and some different things that have really. shifted focus, which, there's things you just have to, I think you need to be mindful, right? It's very comparable to the great Pacific garbage patch, right? You think about 10, 15 years ago, the media really use a term, an island of plastic. They use it because they knew it would be a very big buzzword and consumers would grab onto it. So I can't tell you how many people tell me, Hey, I heard that there's an island twice the size of Texas out in between, Hawaii and California. Why don't we just go out there with big machinery and clean it up? And I think that's, it's a common misconception that it's more of an area of microplastic and small debris, and it's not. An island like that, you could literally physically stand on. And I believe that the fishing equipment conversation is very comparable. While fishing equipment, we are collecting a massive amount. Make no mistake, there is a ton of fishing equipment, derelict fishing, gear nets, ghost nets, et cetera, in the ocean. Our team is primarily pulling. Plastic packaging. We are pulling single use plastic items. And I get that question a lot. Everyone says, Hey, what can I do to have the most impact on the amount of plastics entering the ocean? And I say, the most common items we find are water bottles, our PET bottles, soda bottles are, styrofoam from to go to containers, and by the small actions, like bringing a reusable mug and some of these other items, you're having a massive impact. You really are changing the amount of materials that are potentially ending up in the ocean. So, We get that all the time of is it just fishing gear that's in the ocean? And I argue that majority, probably close to 85 percent of what we collect and 90 percent of what we collect is packaging and Sigleaf's materials, it's sachets, water bags, plastic water bottles, flip flops, foam shoes, foam packaging, things like that. And I think that they're using a statistic that's. It's not it's focused purely more on offshore where that is more prevalent, right? You're getting materials made out of polypropylene or high density polyethylene that are floating that are ending up in the middle of the ocean where what we're collecting are our captains and crew operate more locally in coastal areas. So we're, maybe 1 to 5 miles offshore. We're not. hundreds of miles offshore, thousands of miles offshore. And what we're finding is this is where the pack plastic packaging is coming from land based sources. It's ending up in the streets, it's ending up in the gutters and it's ending up in the ocean. So that's what we're really trying to focus on and stopping that plastic because that's what we're finding is having massive impact on these local areas.
Cory Connors:that's a really excellent point that it's both is the answer and but closer to shore. I think you're going to find a lot more packaging and out in the deep, least floating. You're going to find fishing nets and fishing gear. A lot of what I see are like. look like clothes hampers, but they're used on the fishing vessels. but what you're doing close to shore, I think is so critical for our wildlife and for our coral and for people, to have a more, to have a more. Impactful and better experience at the coastlines, both, leisure and professional, as you mentioned, people fishing for their family to eat. this is incredibly valuable for that.
Alex Schulze:I appreciate it. Thank you.
Cory Connors:Yeah. So tell me a little bit about how that works. Let's say I'm a fisherman or a fisher person in Bali and I want to sign up. I want to be a part of the solution and make the world a better place. what do I do? Do I reach out to you online and say, sign me up, Alex?
Alex Schulze:So that's actually a big misconception. all of our captains and crews are full time employees. So they're not volunteers. So all of our captains and crews are paid full time. We pay fair living wages to all of our crew and we cover 100 percent of health insurance and benefits. So they are solely working for four ocean. They're out there five days a week with our equipment, our vessels, and all of our gear, cleaning plastic out of the ocean. So anybody that's interested in becoming a captain or crew, Would apply just like you would for any other job. They'd go through the interview process and we potentially hire them full time to clean plastic from the ocean.
Cory Connors:Well, that's impressive. The videos I've seen online, I spend quite a bit of time on tick tock and things like that. For, social media work that I do, I see your posts and they're very impressive. The crews are making a huge impact on, when they get to work. So well done.
Alex Schulze:Yes. And our crews, I absolutely love spending time with our team out there getting in the field, cleaning up plastic and just doing what we're passionate about. It's amazing to see how committed they are to the mission. And I will tell you that it's not only just the environmental impact, but the social and economic impact. we're able to create full time jobs for these individuals in areas that Are being affected by plastic pollution. It literally is having an impact on their ability to provide for their families. when you think of being able to fish or provide for their family in terms of food. And now we're able to switch that demand into collecting plastic. So it's a really cool model. And I really enjoy being able to create those jobs and work with our captains side by side and help them to clean the ocean up.
Cory Connors:Well, that's amazing where I'd like to know a little bit about the funding structure. does it come through donations? Does it come through selling the bracelets? can you that way people like me in the packaging industry can help you financially?
Alex Schulze:Absolutely. So four Ocean, four Ocean's business model is set up in a few different ways. We have three different verticals. the first one is our business. So we are a public benefit corporation and a certified B Corp. And the way that business operates is we recover plastic from the ocean, we recycle it into products. And then we sell those products to fund additional cleanup. So that's how we started and that's how we primarily got our initial growth with 4ocean. The next vertical is our partnership business. Now we work with businesses and brands to help them implement sustainability programs and clean plastic directly from the ocean. So we offer our plastic neutrality. Option where we work with them to calculate their plastic footprint and remove an equivalent amount of plastic directly from the ocean accomplishing plastic neutrality, as well as offering our pull a pound service to brands. So any company can offer the ability to for every product sold client signed order placed or service rendered, they can say we're going to remove a pound of trash from the ocean and partnership with four ocean. So that's our partnership vertical and that's where we were B2B. With these businesses to try and find more sustainable means of how they can implement sustainable packaging and clean the ocean at the same time. Lastly, as we have before ocean foundation, and that is our 501c3. That is a designated purely for impact education and advocacy. So if anybody wanted to just purely donate, they could donate without receiving a product or a partnership or any marketing efforts, and that would just purely go towards our direct impact based foundation. So there's three pillars to it. It's the products, it is the partnerships, and it is our 501c3 foundation.
Cory Connors:That's amazing. very exciting. And, I hope to be a part of it soon. somehow, we'll figure something out for sure.
Alex Schulze:Love it. from a sustainability packaging perspective, we want to connect brands and different corporations with People like yourself, we want to find out how can we cut out the waste plastics, get rid of the non recyclable materials and try and get rid of these plastic items that are ending up in the ocean and coastlines. Because we say it a lot, cleaning the ocean alone will not solve the ocean plastic crisis. We've got to turn off the tap and stop it at the source.
Cory Connors:100 percent agree with you. It has to, we have to rethink the way things move throughout the system and, and eliminate that, That ocean bound plastic. Absolutely. Stop it before it gets there or eliminate it before it even gets created. Or, yeah, very exciting news. so what's the best way for people to get in touch with you? What's, what's the fastest way to learn more? About what you're doing.
Alex Schulze:So anybody interested in getting involved with 4ocean, they can do a few things. They can follow us on social media. It's just the number for the word ocean. They can check us out on all of our social channels where they can see behind the scenes of what we're doing on a day to day basis. We've got our website, which is 4ocean. com. The number for the word ocean. com. And on there, they can learn more about our partnership programs. They can purchase any of the products that we're making from the recovered ocean plastic, and they can get more involved with us overall, as well as our website. For ocean, dot org, which is our foundation.
Cory Connors:And do you ever look for sponsorships for specific cleanups or is that something, that a company could sign up for
Alex Schulze:that is correct. And that's exactly what we do is we offer sponsorship. It's very much like a sponsorship type program where a business can sponsor a specific type of program. Cleanup. And what we can do is guarantee the amount of pounds that they would remove from the ocean. And then they're able to get, all of the marketing resources. So we show them all the photos, the photography, we'll do things like, we'll have a banner with their company and be able to promote that and just any means of finding funding mechanisms to expand our cleanups. We are open to it. we're trying to expand our cleanups and hire as many captains and crew around the world. And scale our cleanups and trying to recover as much of that legacy plastic that's already in the ocean as possible.
Cory Connors:That's really amazing. I wanted to ask one more question. There's a lot of, new laws coming to fruition called extended producer responsibility laws. Do you feel like it's possible that some of those laws could possibly, fund some of your efforts? Is that even, in the cards?
Alex Schulze:I absolutely think it is, extended producer responsibility is something that I believe is going to have a massive positive impact on the amount of plastic entering in the ocean. we're essentially holding these brands and corporations accountable for putting this plastic material out into the environment. And what it's doing is it's financially incentivizing them. To find more sustainable means right if they're going to have to essentially pay a tax for putting materials that they know can't be recycled to an area they know doesn't have waste management infrastructure then they're going to be incentivized to want to find a more sustainable route and I do know that the EPR legislation and what's happening with this plastic credits industry is it's being put towards waste management infrastructure. Cleanups as well as everything else that needs to be done to stop plastic at the source. So I'm very confident in the EPR legislation and what's going to happen and how that's going to have a massive impact on the amount of plastic entering the ocean. So, we are excited about it. We're excited to see a stop it at the stores and anything we can do to help clean up the plastic that's already there.
Cory Connors:Well, thank you, Alex. I really appreciate your hard work and your team's hard work. And again, I'm here to help and look forward to working with you in the future.
Alex Schulze:Awesome. Thank you so much for having me on. I really appreciate it and, have a great rest of the week, buddy. Thank you.
Cory Connors:You too. Thank you.
