Last week, David de Rothschild’s latest ecological adventure set sail from San Francisco’s Pier 31. The vessel: a 60-foot-long catamaran made out of none other than 12,500 plastic bottles. It has been appropriately deemed the Plastiki, with inspiration for the name being derived from Thor Heyerdahl’s 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition from South America to Polynesia. But that is neither here nor there. The purpose of the expedition is to draw attention to the mounting litter and garbage problem that is plaguing our planet. It also seeks to exhibit and promote efficient use of recyclable materials. The Plastiki has a six-person crew and will sail from SanFraniciso, U.S.A. to Sydney, Australia, in a three-month expedition with a jaunt through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The project has been four years in the making and will result in a documentary about the voyage, its purpose, and its ecological discoveries along the way.
Rendered Image of the Plastiki
The Plastiki is made from completely recycled and recyclable materials; it was built using cradle-to-cradle design principles. The hull of the boat is made of about 12,000 reclaimed 2-liter plastic bottles that have been filled with carbon dioxide by using powdered dry ice to re-inflate the bottles. The CO2-filled bottles are what keep the hull afloat. Most of the structure of the boat is made from a material known as recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and self-reinforcing PET (srPET). The masts are made of reclaimed aluminum irrigation pipes and the sails are made of recycled PET bottles. Other sustainable features of the boat include solar, wind, and bicycle energy, a biodiesel emergency generator, a composting toilet, a vertical hydroponic garden, and a roof that captures rain water for showers and additional drinking water if necessary. The design of the Plastiki has fully integrated ecologically-sustainable materials and exemplifies the reduce, reuse, and recycle principles.
The Plastiki escapade has garnered tremendous media coverage from prominent outlets such as the BBC and National Geographic. The endeavor marks yet another extraordinary environmental exploration by de Rothschild who has been named one of National Geographic’s emerging explorers. The voyage also falls under the Adventure Ecology umbrella, which is an online educational organization geared toward educating and engaging people, especially children, about environmental challenges and ecological responsibility. David de Rothschild uses his high-profile expeditions to draw attention to the earth, its resources, and the ecological challenges the planet faces in the 21st Century. The BBC coverage of the Plastiki adventure sites that there have been some critiques of the Plastiki expedition. Such as, the possibility that the Plastiki could fall apart on its voyage and actually add more plastic debris to the ocean. And that extensive usage of recycled plastic encourages reuse and recycling, but not the reduction of plastic bottle use. It cannot be denied, however, that the Plastiki endeavor will bring a great deal of attention to the plaguing problem of plastic bottle usage, the need for more earth-sustaining efforts, the trash problem in the Pacific, and the general idea that the world can be made better through individual and collective change.
