After 120 days at sea, the Plastiki boat made from plastic bottles has finally reached Australia! David de Rothschild sent a dispatch out today saying that the boat had successfully crossed the great waters of the Pacific and is now en route to their final destination of Sydney, Australia. The expedition set out across the Pacific from the blue waters of San Francisco in a valiant attempt to draw attention to the issues of waste and pollution by sailing right through the Pacific Gyre garbage patch — a great mass of garbage concentrated by currents in the Pacific ocean. The team sailed on a sturdy boat made from nothing other than discarded plastic bottles, and now as their 7,500 mile journey is nearing a close they hope that their efforts have helped spread the word about ocean waste.
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It was recently reported in the news that Plastiki had called in distress to the Australian police. That’s not the case, and as they landed on shore they cleared up the confusion noting that the call was to initiate a pre-planned rendezvous with a charter vessel that would lead them into port — they’ve done this at all ports they’ve come into along the journey. They noted that throughout the 7,500 miles they traveled across the Pacific the plastic boat was not once in distress and have now safely landed down under. They landed today in Mooloolaba, Queensland — slightly North of their destination of Sydney — and were excited to be walking on solid ground.
“Now we’ve got to keep on thinking about how we can beat waste,” David de Rotschild — the leader of the journey and initiator of the project noted upon landing in Australia. He added that the crew hopes, “that the Plastiki’s legacy continues to put the message out there about how we can all be bigger, bolder and stronger in tackling the issue of waste. We already have the solutions it’s just about how we apply them.” De Rotschild seemed sad that the journey was over and is preparing with his crew to land in Sydney on the 25th of this month. Check out the Plastiki website for amazing dispatches from the journey, more on their mission and information about what you can do to reduce your waste!
+ The Plastiki arrives!
Bravo for their effort; I think I’ll stick to the Queen E-2!