Sunday, August 31, 2008

I want a raft made of plastic bottles!

...not to mention that sometimes I get seasick. Two men constructed a raft out of 15,000 plastic bottles and made a cabin out of the fuselage of an airplane. They did it as part of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation project called JUNK to raise the awareness of debris and pollution in the ocean. In particular they wanted to emphasize how plastic including plastic bottles, which are usually a one time use, have added to a dramatic amount in the ocean. The men sailed from the shore of California across the Pacific to Hawaii. They had estimated that it would take about 6 weeks and took a limited amount of foods. However in the first 2 weeks they had difficultly in taking off and had to land to repair some of the bottles that got filled with water. In total it took 3 months as they survived off of fish and peanut butter. Again they emphasized how plastic bottles should be banned and covered the idea that recycle is one thing but prevention of making more waste is better.

No comments: