A boat made from 100% trash set sail from Taiwan this week with recycled plastic bottles keeping it afloat and old advertising sails pushing it along. The vessel, dubbed the Polli-Boat after its flotation device — a product called Polli Bricks — is the brainchild of Miniwiz, a Taipei-based sustainable energy development company and is meant to call attention to the giant issue of marine debris — if you don’t know about the plastic gyres yet read about them here.
The Polli Boat’s other pieces are made from a wood-plastic composite, waste canvas and a renewable energy system that consists of wind and solar power generation. The trimaran — meaning the boat has three hulls — was first debuted in the EcoARK, a building made entirely from Polli Bricks that was built by Miniwiz in Taipei.
“The concept of the Polli-Boat is using 100 percent trash,” Arthur Huang, the founder and managing director of Miniwiz Sustainable Energy Development Ltd, told Reuters. “It’s being propelled only by renewable resources — obviously sailing, that’s using wind. The other is solar energy with six modules of soft solar panels.” The boat was entered into a competition sponsored by National Geographic meant to raise awareness on World Ocean Day — which was yesterday — and other boats in the competition had clever designs to bring attention to rising water levels — a floating city — and endangered animals — a bird.
+ Miniwiz
+ Polli Boat
Via Reuters
This is amazing!
With Plastiki and Polli-Boat recycled plastic bottles do seem like a great building material. Hoping to see more of this in the future.