Who wants a feel-good story about a mom-and-pop business that's working hard to clean plastic pollution from rivers and oceans?
And what if that company also happens to specialize in recreational marijuana?
Ocean Cannabis Co. is a California company that began with medical marijuana and expanded into recreational products. As the company grew, owners Mary and Patrick Ersig — who previously also ran homeless shelters in Michigan and California — said they wanted to make sure their packaging didn't add to the plastic waste issue.
"They wanted to do their part to rid the world's oceans of plastics and decided to make recycled plastic a central theme of their brand," the company website states.
In an interview with Cannabis Dispensary, the couple said they source their packaging from Oceanworks, which collects bottles and other products from waterways in Haiti, and processors such as Sana Packaging, which reached out to the cannabis industry with its containers in 2019. (Jim Johnson wrote about Sana in November.)
Ocean Cannabis says one of its pre-roll plastic cannisters is made from the equivalent of 15 straws.
"When you smoke Ocean Cannabis products, you help clean the ocean and save the earth," the company says.