September 21st, 2009
Plastiki
Billionaire, eco-warrior David de Rothschild has built a catamaran out of re-used plastic and re-cycled waste. He plans to sail ‘Plastiki’ from San Francisco to Sydney via the ‘Great Garbage Patch’.
The purpose of his journey, scheduled for late summer, is to highlight the floating plastic of the North Pacific Gyre; the enormous ‘garbage patch’ caught up in the swirling currents of the Pacific Ocean and which is now believed to have grown to the size of France or Texas. This pollution is now devastating populations of seabirds and fish that live in the area.
“The plastic water bottle epitomises everything about this throwaway, disposable society,” says de Rothschild, who originally trained to be a showjumper and who has trekked to both the north and south poles. However, he added that he is not aiming to demonise plastic, but is trying to show its alternative uses, as well as focusing global attention on the dangers posed to the ecology in regions such as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
During his trip, which is being sponsored by The International Watch Company and Hewlett-Packard, de Rothschild will collect water samples and post blogs, photographs and video clips of the area, in an attempt to publicise the perils of plastic pollution.