Posts Tagged ‘Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch’

Set Sail on the U.S.S. Pop Bottle?!?

Friday, January 23rd, 2009

That’s exactly what sailor David de Rothschild has decided to do. In a 60-foot catamaran made approximately 12,000 recycled two liter soda bottles. Did you know that Americans purchase roughly 22 billion bottles a year?!

De Rothschild, the 31 year old British Environmentalist, (not to mention one of Britain’s best looking Bachelors, ladies) had decided that he wanted to sail from San Francisco to Sydney, Australia. His goal? To take on this 10,000-mile mission, which should take about 100 days, to bring international attention to global waste. The crew plans to head straight for the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch, ever heard of it? Me either, but it’s basically a “trash vortex” of accumulated plastic waste estimated to cover an area twice the size of Texas and extend hundreds of feet beneath the water’s surface. If you want to learn more about the world’s largest landfill check out http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/02/great_pacific_garbage_patch.php.

De Rothschild’s intent is not to make plastic the bad guy, but to include it in the solution. Plastic can be reused and recycled in multiple ways, and you might as well since according to Earth911.com it takes plastic bottles over 700 years to decompose in a landfill.
The Plastiki is still in the works, but the ship is scheduled to set sail from Pier 31 of San Francisco and should take about 14 days to reach Sydney, Australia. The architects and designers have had an extremely difficult time perfecting their creation of sustainable properties and groundbreaking ideas but they aren’t discouraged yet. They are hoping to get off the dock in the summer of 2010.

Take a look at the journey of the aptly named Plastiki by checking out their website.
www.theplastiki.com

Follow RFC on Twitter Follow RFC on Facebook
Recycling for Charities Podcasts