The Plastiki Expedition
In 1947, Thor Heyerdahl and a crew of five men traveled across the Pacific Ocean to Peru on craft comprised of natural materials modeled after ancient Inca rafts. Using that as inspiration, David de Rothschild, the banking scion and the founder of Adventure Ecology, is embarking on The Plastiki Expedition, and will soon set sail on another curious vessel: one comprised almost entirely of re-purposed plastic bottles. The journey will take de Rothschild and his crew from San Fransisco to Australia's Sydney Harbor, passing through the North Pacific Garbage Patch. It's part of an effort to raise awareness not only about the problems of plastic waste in our oceans (using the single-use plastic water bottle as the focal point), but also to showcase the potential for plastic as a versatile, reusable material, one that doesn't need to be recycled but that transforms what we currently think of as waste into resources.
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