Voyage of the Plastiki
Yesterday at 9:30 AM PDT, the Plastiki, a vessel made of 12,000 discarded plastic bottles left its berth (photos of the departure are here) in Sausalito, CA (just north of the Golden Gate), en route to Sydney, Australia, 11,000 nautical miles away. The Plastiki is the brainchild of banking heir, David de Rothschild, and is a statement about the fact that most plastic bottles are not recycled, but thrown away. Many find their way to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also known as the Pacific Trash Vortex, a swirling patch of marine litter greater than the size of Texas.
The Plastiki is carrying 1,000 liters of water, so the crew (of three) will have to stop from time to time to resupply. Beside the ecological inspiration for the voyage is the 1947 Kon-Tiki voyage by Thor Hyerdahl in a replica of an Incan raft. The Plastiki’s decks, skeletal hull, and cabin are made from composite Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) plastic panels. Each has layers of self-reinforcing PET skins.
If you would like to follow the Plastiki’s voyage, you can follow online at www.theplastiki.com or on Twitter. Follow the tweets of the crew here.
-Bill at
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