[10] 4Ocean was founded by Alex Schulze and Andrew Cooper,[5] who, on a trip to Bali, Indonesia,[3] noticed the beaches were filled with plastic waste; Schulze and Cooper witnessed fishermen pushing their boats through mounds of plastic in order to get to more open waters.

[11] Upon learning that plastic waste accumulated on the province's coastlines due to the currents of the ocean, they began to explore ideas of widespread cleanup operations.

[5] Schulze and Cooper created a business model that allowed for volunteers to have access to the supplies and resources necessary for the retraction and disposal of waste found in the water and along coastlines.

[7] A transparency disclosure released through the B Corporation indicated that in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the company laid off 136 of its 179 employees.

For every $20 of turnover, 4Ocean claims its employees recover one pound of plastic waste from oceans and coastlines.