Plastic Pollution and Ocean Health:

Ocean health is crucial for all ecosystems and living organisms, and plays a vital role in regulating Earth’s climate. It not only provides a habitat for our marine life, but supports the livelihoods of millions through fisheries, energy, tourism and more. Over half of our oxygen we breathe is produced by the oceans, making it essential to our existence.

However, plastic pollution is a growing threat to ocean health - each year, millions of kg of plastic waste ends up in the oceans, causing a multitude of problems. Harmful chemicals can leach into the water, creating a toxic environment to plant and marine life. The presence of plastics can also enter the food chain, causing injury, disease and death to many species.

How Ocean Co support Ocean Health:

At Ocean Co, the main goal is to help keep our oceans healthy by stopping plastic from entering them. Plastic is a big problem for the environment, and it gets worse by mismanaged waste, illegal dumping and insufficient infrastructure. We pay for coastal communities to collect plastic that could end up in the ocean and waterways, and we set up facilities where they can recycle it, especially in areas where there aren’t sufficient ways to get rid of plastic waste. We focus on places near the coast because a lot of the plastic that ends up in the ocean starts out there, and gets transported by river streams. And for the people who live near all this plastic, it makes life harder because it pollutes their water, air, and land. By paying locals to gather up the plastic, we stop it from floating around and breaking into microplastics that harm marine life. This helps keep the ocean cleaner and safer for everyone. With the help of our community, we’ve already kept over 12M kg of plastic out of the ocean, and we’re working hard to do even more.