American Friends of the The Ocean Cleanup's primary mission is to preserve and protect the natural ocean environment for the benefit of the public. This includes promoting and supporting the efficient and environmentally friendly extraction of waste from oceans, seas and other waste areas as well as raising awareness of the global plastic problem. This also includes promoting and supporting the environmentally friendly recycling of such waste. This non-profit holds the role of a “Friends of” organization to Stichting The Ocean Cleanup in The Netherlands, and shares with it the joint mission of ridding the world's oceans of plastic. Therefore it works closely together with Stichting The Ocean Cleanup in order to realize this joint mission.