4ocean Plastic Offset Programs
Plastic Neutral Product
Certifies that a business has calculated the amount of plastic used in a product or product line and removed the same amount of plastic from the ocean or environment
Plastic Neutral Company
Certifies that a business has calculated the amount of plastic produced in the entire company and removed the same amount of plastic from the ocean or environment
What is a Plastic Offset?
A Plastic Offset is measuring the amount of plastic that you use in your product or company, and removing the equivalent amount of plastic directly from the ocean or environment. Think Carbon Offsets, but for Plastic.
This program is offered for a specific product or product line, or for an entire company. A company is considered plastic neutral when they offset their entire plastic footprint.
How It Works
Calculate
Offset
Track
Communicate
Step 1 - Calculate
Work with our team to calculate your plastic footprint and determine which certification is right for you. You can offset the plastic used in a specific product, or offset the plastic used in your entire company
Step 2 - Offset
Purchase one 4ocean Plastic Credit for each pound of plastic you want to offset based on your footprint
Step 3 - Track
Detailed documentation and third party audits allow you to track every pound of plastic recovered for full transparency and traceability
Step 4 - Communicate
Each certification comes with a media toolkit that makes it easy you to share your impact with consumers, investors, and key stakeholders
How it comes to life
Why Partner with 4ocean?
For some organizations, documentation begins when recovered plastic is dropped off at the collection center which makes it difficult, if not impossible, to determine where the material was recovered. 4ocean documents the entire process from collection to recycling.
Waste collectors are typically not employed full time by collection facilities, which makes it tough to prove that everyone was of legal age recovering materials. 4ocean employs our captains and crews full time.
The collection center model is typically managed by a group of micro entrepreneurs which means it’s very difficult to make sure that every person collecting plastic has the proper footwear, gloves, and other basic safety gear they need to protect themselves.
No Plastic Left Behind
Ideally, plastic offset programs result in the recovery of plastic that would otherwise have been left in the environment. Like the recycling market, the collection center model pays a premium for recovered plastics with high recycling value.
While this incentivizes the collection of PET and other high-value plastics, plastics with little or no recycling value like wrappers, sachets, styrofoam, and mixed plastics are often skipped over in the collection process and left in the environment.
4ocean captains and crews recover all types of plastics and not just the high value plastics that drive revenue. This is why our costs are higher than comparable companies because of the additional processing and recycling fees for low value materials.