Sunday, August 01, 2010

The Plastiki - A Boat Built With 12,500 Recyclable Bottles

Do you ever wonder what you can do with 12,500 plastic bottles?  

The Plastiki, a vessel that is powered by completely renewable energy finished its voyage across the pacific last Monday. The catamaran boat stays afloat due to 12,500 recyclable plastic bottles. It departed in March from San Fransisco and set sail on a 8,000 mile voyage across the Pacific to create awareness for plastic pollution and also show the world how trash can be useful. On their website, theplastiki.com it says:

"It’s about encouraging the world to reduce, reuse, recycle and rethink more of the planets natural resources. It’s about delivering a spectacular global “Message in a Bottle.”

One man's trash is another's treasure right? They really make good use of that term!

The Plastiki and her 10 crew members, including expedition leader David De Rothschild, safely arrived to its final destination of Sydney Harbor in Sydney Australia last Monday, calling an end to a 4 month long journey across the Pacific.

Staying true to their philosophy, the Plastiki was built with many other recyclable materials, for example, the super structure was made from a unique-type of recyclable plastic, the mast is a used aluminum irrigation pipe and the sail is hand made from recycled PET cloth. The boat also comes fully green equipped with solar panels, wind turbines and energy bikes. With all of that renewable energy, the boat has a top speed of 5 knots per hour. Okay, so the boat wont be winning any races, so what! Its completely green energy!

In addition, it also has a piss to water system, rainwater collecting buckets and other goodies. This is one heck of a green machine!
  
For more pictures and information, go to theplastiki.com and show your support for this awesome, green, "message in a bottle."