Plastiki, a 60-foot catamaran made buoyant with 12,000 two-litre plastic bottles along the hull, is getting ready to cross the Pacific Ocean. According to Adventure Ecology, fifteen billion pounds (7 billion kilograms) of plastic are produced annually in the U.S., but only 1 billion pounds (.5 billion kilograms) are recycled. Lot of bottles that are not recycled end up floating out at sea.
Some of the interesting features of Plastiki are:
- the expedition is expected to start in end April or early May (earlier plan was to start in end March).
- the skipper is: explorer, environmentalist, and British celebrity David de Rothschild.
- to cover a distance of 11,000 miles (17,703 kilometres).
- to sail from San Francisco to Sydney, with several island stops to explore plastic litter in the ocean.
- the expedition also aims to highlight how plastics can be re-used.
- after the voyage is over, the boat will be broken down and turned into emergency shelters, shipping pellets, clothes and even more bottles.
- view expedition route from National Geographic Adventure Magazine.
- view photographs of Plastiki under construction from Gigapan: view 1 and view 2.
- above image of Plastiki is from Architecture for Humanity.
- view an interesting video clip of Plastiki: A Peek at the Production Happenings on Pier 31.
Read more about Plastiki, from David de Rothschild’s Plastiki Voyage and from Architecture for Humanity.
Posts in MarineBuzz on this day a year before:
Plastics are a Threat or No Threat to Marine Environment
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