The average human consumes 9 pounds of single use plastic per month.
Lend A Helping Hand To Our Fellow Humans And Planet
What Others Are Saying
We love Costa Rica and are so pumped to help out where we can! thanks so much for your work there!
Alexa
Its an amazing feeling knowing that im on my way to plastic neutrality now after purchasing a monthly plan!
Joe
What they do really helps our oceans! Plus, they turn plastic into cinderblocks and build homes for people! Such a great cause!
Josh
Who Is Makes Me Happy?
Makes Me Happy is deeply engaged in Costa Rica, forging strong partnerships with the local community to enhance waste management infrastructure and logistics. We have undertaken several initiatives that demonstrate our commitment to making a positive impact:
Firstly, we collect plastics and recyclables from 100 local schools, directly benefiting 10,000 children. Additionally, we conduct monthly roadside cleanups to keep our surroundings pristine. Moreover, our collaborative efforts with the clean wave involve organizing weekly beach cleanups, ensuring the protection of coastal ecosystems.
In line with our belief in the power of education, we actively deliver informative sessions in local schools, raising awareness about the program's significance and inspiring the younger generation to actively participate. Furthermore, through our "Green Homes program," we provide housing support to families in need, extending our outreach to address social challenges.
These endeavors exemplify our unwavering dedication to environmental preservation, social well-being, and educational outreach in the Costa Rican community.
Your Questions, Answered:
How does CRMMH offset my plastic footprint?
CRMMH directly manages a global ocean cleanup operation and employs professional, full-time captains and crews to recover plastic from the world’s oceans, rivers, and coastlines seven days a week.
To offset your single-use plastic footprint, we recover an equivalent amount of plastic from the ocean for every pound of single-use plastic you consume.
Our Plastic Neutral Plan is based on the fact that the average person consumes 110 pounds of single-use plastic each year—that’s 9 pounds of single-use plastic every month.
If you consume more than 9 pounds of single-use plastic each month (or want to maximize your impact and pull more pounds than you consume), subscribe to our Plastic Negative Plan instead!
Where do you recover plastic?
Our cleanup crews specialize in recovering plastic from the open ocean and environments where plastic is at high risk of entering the ocean. This includes rivers and coastal areas like sensitive mangrove forests, coral reefs, estuaries, and beaches.
What Makes CRMMH plastic offset Program different?
Our cleanup crews recover all types of plastic, not just the high-value plastics that drive revenue. We also collect glass, metal, and any other man-made debris that doesn’t belong in the environment.
Every captain and crew member is a full-time CRMMH employee who gets paid a fair living wage. We also cover all health insurance costs as well as additional benefits and bonus incentives.
We own all of the vessels and equipment our crews need to do their jobs safely and effectively, which requires the up-front investment as well as regular maintenance costs.
We also prioritize the most sustainable types of waste management for recovered debris, but the most sustainable choice isn’t always the most economical choice.
Ultimately, we work hard to balance our triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit. Our ocean-first philosophy means our operational costs tend to be higher than comparable organizations.
This is especially true when you compare us to companies that utilize a collection center model for plastic recovery where volunteer trash pickers are only paid per-pound of high-value material collected.
When you offset your single-use plastic footprint with CRMMH, you’re directly funding a global cleanup operation that’s actively restoring the marine environment by removing plastic waste and other man-made debris from critical ocean, river, and coastal habitats while creating local, living-wage jobs for people whose lives and livelihoods are directly impacted by plastic pollution.
And that makes all the difference.
isn't it better to stop using plastic altogether?
Absolutely! Eliminating unnecessary plastics from our lives will always be the best way to both decrease demand for virgin plastics and prevent plastic pollution. But we believe it’s important to acknowledge reality even as we strive toward our ideals.
Right now, the average person uses 110 pounds of single-use plastic every year. And it can be easy to blame people for their choices, but the truth is that sustainable options aren’t always the most accessible options.
Plastic has become so commonplace in our society that it’s often the most affordable choice. And sometimes, plastic products and packaging are the only choice—especially for folks with health issues and dietary restrictions.
That’s why we still need urgent and immediate action from our leaders in government, business, and media. They have the power to enact large-scale systemic changes that prevent plastic pollution at the source—like transitioning to the circular economy.
In this model of production and consumption, waste is viewed as a design flaw and products (or their material components) are sustainably sourced and easily and affordably repaired, recycled, or regenerated at the end of their useful life.
We actually started our Partnership program to help businesses transition to the circular economy, but large-scale change takes time to produce results.
Our Plastic Offset Plans are an interim solution that allows people to balance out the negative impact of plastics they can’t avoid right now while the global community works together to build a more sustainable future that’s accessible to everyone; a future where humanity grows alongside nature and not at its expense.
How Do i know you're actually cleaning the ocean?
Our captains and crews are required to follow a strict documentation process that allows us to trace the origins and handling of each and every pound of trash we recover from the world’s oceans, rivers, and coastlines.
The following data is recorded for every single cleanup: date, location, duration, crew members involved, the weight of each sack of recovered debris, and the total weight of all trash collected. We also document every cleanup visually with before, during, and after photos to prove we’re recovering plastic directly from the environment (versus a landfill or collection center).
All recorded data and photos must be reviewed and verified by the location manager before they are uploaded to the 4ocean TrashTracker. If data is inaccurate or incomplete, or the photos don’t meet our rigorous documentation standards, they are not uploaded into the TrashTracker or counted toward our total pounds pulled.
Does offsetting my plastic footprint increase my carbon footprint?
Nope! You don’t have to worry about that. We offset our company’s entire carbon footprint every year by restoring blue carbon ecosystems like coral reefs, kelp and mangrove forests, and coastal watersheds through our partnership with SeaTrees by Sustainable Surf.
This includes all of the activities we engage in to offset your plastic footprint.
This includes all of the activities we engage in to offset your plastic footprint.