April 7, 2009
Preparing Plastiki
BY: Emily Fisher
As the OCYC blog noted recently, British adventurer and environmentalist (and hunk) David de Rothschild is set to lead an expedition this summer across the Pacific Ocean in the Plastiki, a 60-foot vessel made entirely out of recyclable plastic — mostly bottles.The New Yorker recently caught wind of de Rothschild’s plan, and published a feature about it in the April 6 issue (abstract only.) Plastiki will visit the Eastern Garbage Patch, collect water samples and document it all on de Rothschild’s Adventure Ecology site. Sound similar to a little 2008 project called Junk Raft? Turns out de Rothschild was inspired to embark on the voyage after reading Captain Charles Moore‘s article about the Eastern Garbage Patch. I’m glad to see that plastic pollution in the ocean is getting some serious attention. Stay tuned for more on the Plastiki; meanwhile, the New Yorker blog has this interesting video about the making of the boat: