Guatemala Equipment

YOUR IMPACT

Our crews are safe and efficient because of you

There is no playbook for cleaning the ocean. Over the last few years, we’ve tested a lot of solutions to figure out what works and what doesn’t work; every single pound of trash we’ve pulled has been an opportunity to learn. And one of the most important things we’ve learned is that every location has its own unique needs and cleanup methodology.

Now, we want to show you all of the tools and equipment we’ve invested in to keeping our crews safe and maximize our impact in Guatemala. Remember that this is what you make possible every time you shop 4ocean and pull a pound of trash.

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Shop Now + Pull a Pound

Pangas

Pangas are popular in fishing communities around the world because they’re lightweight, efficient, rugged, easy to maintain, and extremely versatile. The high bow is perfect for operations in the open ocean while the shallow draft is ideal for navigating flats. These same qualities are what make the panga an ideal vessel for recovering ocean plastic.

In Guatemala, we have six pangas; three are currently in operation and the other three are being transported and launched in San Francisco del Mar and the Rio Motagua. Each panga is 25-feet long with a 75hp ParSun motor. One boat captain and two cleanup crew members are assigned to each vessel, which can carry up to 1,000 pounds of recovered marine debris (about four super sacks of trash).

Fishing nets

One of the simplest and most efficient tools in our cleanup arsenal is a basic fishing net. The shorter nets are suitable for collecting trash in the open ocean because they’re easy to use, durable, and can hold up to 25 pounds of trash in every scoop.

The longer nets are useful in blackwater, or waste water that’s contaminated by both plastic waste and organic material. These 7-foot nets extend up to 13 feet, which means our crews are safer because they don’t need to use their hands to gather debris trapped in potentially hazardous blackwater. They’re also ideal for walking the coastline and scooping up plastic and debris that floats in the surf.

Super sacks

4ocean Guatemala recovers an average of 3,000+ pounds of trash daily. We want to make sure none of the trash we collect escapes back into the environment, so we use super sacks to contain our plastic while we clean and during transport.

Our white super sacks have a capacity of up to 250 pounds and are used to store the plastic and debris our crews collect during our daily cleanup missions. On an average day, our Guatemala crews will fill about eight of these sacks per boat, or about 24 sacks total.

Our blue super sacks have a capacity of up to 125 pounds and are generally used at our Puerto Barrios facility to store and transport sorted ocean plastic before it’s baled.

Support our Guatemala cleanup operation by pulling a pound today!

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Single-use Alternatives

Start reducing your plastic footprint by replacing single-use plastic with our reusable alternatives

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Face Masks + Support Frames

Help the planet by preventing pandemic litter with our reusable face masks and support frames

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Platform barge

The platform barge is the vessel we use to transport super sacks of trash collected by crews in our satellite locations to our base in Puerto Barrios where it’s processed. The barge measures 15x50 feet and can carry up to 20,000 pounds of trash; that’s 200+ super sacks! The barge runs weekly and alternates between our satellite locations in El Quetzalito and San Francisco del Mar.

Baling machine

Once our recovered marine debris is delivered to our facility in Puerto Barrios, it’s weighed, documented, and sorted by type, color, and condition. Blue super sacks of sorted plastic are taken to our custom baling machine, which compresses the material into a bale that can be easily transported to our recycling partner’s facility just outside of Guatemala City.

Office-in-a-box

Our main office in Puerto Barrios is temporarily operating out of a shipping container that’s been converted into a solar-powered office. It runs on six 250-watt solar panels and has 12 ETNA deep cycle batteries that store power and keep the office functional even on stormy days. It’s equipped with AC, a smart TV for calls and presentations, and is used primarily for meetings and paperwork. Once our larger office is built, our “office-in-a-box” will be used for the same purpose at other startup locations and expansions.

Boom systems

The 4ocean Guatemala team is currently testing boom systems in various locations to determine what setup will have the biggest impact. Our first test in the Rio Escondido failed due to changing currents, so we’re moving that boom system further up river to deeper, calmer water that has no boat traffic. We’ll continue to scout for additional locations and will install boom systems in the Rio Motagua in the next few months as we continue our expansion in Guatemala. Stay tuned for updates!

Crew Uniforms

The gear our Guatemala crews wear to work every day are the same shirts, hats, and gloves we sell on 4ocean.com.

SHIRTS

Our 100% GOTS-certified organic cotton shirts are ultra soft, lightweight, and breathable and won’t shed microfibers, a common type of plastic pollution, in the wash cycle.

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Hats

We built a whole new supply chain to ensure that our hats are sustainable. Now, they’re one of the only hats on the market made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic and organic cotton.

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Gloves

The gloves featured in our Cleanup Combo have a 13-gauge nylon liner and nitrile palm coating that provides better grip and keeps hands clean while recovering marine debris.

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EXPLORE MORE

The full story of 4ocean Guatemala

Discover the causes of plastic pollution in Guatemala

It’s estimated that 80% of ocean plastic comes from “mismanaged waste” on land. In Guatemala, there’s just one official basurero, or garbage dump, for the entire country. It’s in the nation’s capital of Guatemala City and it’s currently the biggest landfill in all of Central America. Over a third of the country’s total trash ends up in the Guatemala City basurero each year, but not all of it stays there.

Tell Me More

See how 4ocean is addressing plastic pollution in Guatemala

Preventing plastic from entering the ocean is the crux of our strategy in Guatemala. Instead of sending vessels into the open ocean, our crews will focus on recovering plastic from the Rio Motagua and high-impact areas along the eastern coastline where massive amounts of trash accumulates.

Explore Our Strategy

Tour our main operational facility in Puerto Barrios, Guatemala

It takes a lot of time and resources to open a new cleanup division. Thanks to the clean ocean movement, we purchased an empty tract of land in Guatemala where we could build an entire operational base from the ground up. Located in the thriving port city of Puerto Barrios, our newest base now features a new sea wall, boat ramp, weighing station, sorting facility, bailers, storage yards, and even a shipping container that’s been converted into a solar-powered office!

Take the Tour

Meet the people behind 4ocean Guatemala

Opening a new cleanup division really takes a village. It’s a slow and laborious process even at the best of times, let alone in the middle of a global pandemic. But thanks to the clean ocean movement and the herculean efforts of the crew members you’re about to meet, 4ocean Guatemala is not only open, but thriving.

Meet the Team

PULL A POUND

Our global ocean cleanup operation is funded by you

Every pound of trash you pull helps advance our mission of ending the ocean plastic crisis. And now, there are more ways to support the clean ocean movement than ever before!

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Explore the tools and equipment 4ocean Guatemala uses to clean the ocean

Our global ocean cleanup operation is funded by you

Explore the tools and equipment 4ocean Guatemala uses to clean the ocean

Our global ocean cleanup operation is funded by you

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