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Plastiki arrives in Sydney after Pacific Crossing

Rick Spilman — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 18:22:38 +0000

We have previously posted about the experimental sailboat Plastiki, built using 12,500 recycled soda bottles. The craft sailed last March from San Francisco and has now arrived in Sydney, Australia after a voyage of 9,000 miles (15,000 km.)

Boat made from plastic bottles completes Pacific voyage

The Plastiki left the US city of San Francisco in March, crossing the Pacific and then travelling via Western Samoa and New Caledonia before arriving in Australia.

It sailed via the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – a sea of waste about five times the size of the UK that sits just below the surface between California and Hawaii.

The vessel is a catamaran, with the thousands of plastic bottles attached with organic glue to two pontoons.

Other parts of the boat such as the sails and the mast are made from recycled materials.

Mr de Rothschild said he and his crew had wanted to raise awareness of the damage caused to the ocean by the disposal of plastic waste.

“We have this addiction to single-use, throwaway plastic, which is choking up the ecosystem,” he said earlier this week.

He said that a UN report warning of the dangers posed by plastic waste to the world’s oceans was the inspiration for his trip.

The Plastiki will now go on display in Sydney’s Maritime Museum.

It was named after the Kon-Tiki, the raft sailed across the Pacific by Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl in 1947.

His grandson, Olav, was a member of Plastiki’s crew.

The Plastiki’s Vertical Garden

Rick Spilman — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:05:36 +0000

A deficiency of vitamin C from green leafy vegetables caused the dreaded sailor’s sickness scurvy. A vertical garden installed on the Plastiki, which sailed this week on its 3-month voyage across the Pacific, may provide fresh greens for the six person crew while at sea.

Thanks to Your Garden Show for pointing out their video:

The Plastiki Garden

Update: Plastiki Almost Ready to Sail

Rick Spilman — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:39:32 +0000

Last March we posted Plastiki – Boat made of plastic bottles to make ocean voyage about a project in which David de Rothschild intended to build and sail a catamaran made of around 12,000 recycled soda bottles across the Pacific. Almost a year later Plastiki is getting ready to sail.

Trash floats eco-warrior’s boat

David de Rothschild is talking trash, lots and lots of trash.

“There were 25 billion Styrofoam cups used last year. How do you even get your head around what 25 billion Styrofoam cups looks like?” he said. “Eighty-odd percent of what’s purchased by Americans is thrown out within six months.”

On this day, though, the British banking heir is focused on some very particular refuse as he skims along the San Francisco Bay in a catamaran called Plastiki: The 12,000 or so recycled soda bottles lashed together to build his clunky vessel, and the growing heap of plastic fragments called the Eastern Garbage Patch floating in the Pacific.

If all goes well — so far, it’s been a little hit and miss — De Rothschild hopes to set sail aboard Plastiki in March, tour the garbage patch and end up in Australia, while blogging about the evils of plastic and a consumer society.