Eco-adventurer David de Rothschild and his crew officially unveiled the highly anticipated Plastiki – a sail boat made in part from 12,500 water bottles – recently at Cavallo Point in Fort Baker before heading out on their adventure across the Pacific Ocean. There was a big crowd and a lot of excitement at the event, and it will be growing in the next week.
In the next week David and the 5-person crew (Jo Royle, David Thompson, Josian Heyerdahl and Olav Heyerdahl) will embark on an adventure aboard this 60-foot catamaran sailing from San Francisco to Sydney on a mission to beat waste by drawing attention to the large amounts of plastic debris in the world’s oceans (for example, the notorious floating “Garbage Patch” in the Eastern Pacific which is twice the size of the state of Texas) and showcase re-thinking waste as a resource by demonstrating real world solutions.
Engineered by a number of experts in the field of sustainable design, boat building, architecture, materials and innovative design technology (including architect- Nathaniel Corum, concept architect - Michael Pawlyn , naval architect- Andrew Dovell, boat builder - Andy Fox and solar array designer- Jason Iftakhar) the Plastiki is built almost entirely from 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles that provide 68% of the boat’s buoyancy, reclaimed items such as the mast (an aluminium irrigation pipe) and a uniquely recyclable and relatively unexplored material that has never been developed to make anything like a boat before. This has the potential to revolutionize the future of boat-building and beyond. It includes thin-film solar panels and wind turbines, rain catchment system, edible garden for on-boat food production.
The Plastiki began her adventure nearly three years ago following a report issued by UNEP called ‘Ecosystems and Biodiversity in Deep Waters and High Seas’. Taking inspiration from Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947, The Plastiki will navigate over 11,000 nautical miles from San Francisco to Australia’s world famous Sydney Harbour, via a number of environmental hotspots the Plastiki is on a mission to showcase smart thinking by using waste as a valuable resource.
David noted, “So many things come wrapped in plastic. We’re practically wrapping the world in plastic.” He would like to reverse the current rate at which the world consumes and throws away 80% of all plastic bottles, while recyclying only 20%. “What if we could recycle 80%?”
Plastic bottles are 100% recyclable – yet on average only 20% of all plastic bottles are actually recycled. According to Project Aware, 15 billion pounds of plastic are produced in the U.S. every year, and only 1 billion pounds are recycled, furthermore it is estimated that in excess of 38 billion plastic bottles and 25 billion styrofoam cups end up in landfill. The United Nations Environment Program reports that four out of every five plastic bottles – some 27 million tons of plastic, which could have been recycled– end up in landfills.
You can follow David and the crew on their adventure, as David will be tweeting (@plastiki and @drexplore) as he noted, “A big part of this is telling the story with tweets and blogs. We’re not scientists; we’re more like traveling ambassadors.”
www.theplastiki.com
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