As die-hard fans of ABC’s Lost learned in the first season, building a boat from recycled materials may not be as difficult as one might imagine. All it requires is a little ingenuity and what some may see as ‘trash.’ In San Francisco TV fiction is becoming reality, as a navigable boat is being built out of recycled materials. David de Rothschild, an adventurer that has traveled both polar ice caps, has taken it upon himself to create a vessel made almost entirely out of plastic bottles. Once the boat (named Plastiki) is completed, it will travel more than 11,000 miles from California to Australia through the open seas. The voyage is estimated to take over 100 days, with 4 sailors, scientists, and de Rothschild taking permanent residency on the boat with several other crew members rotating throughout the journey.

So what are the mechanics of this fantastic vessel? How is it being formed? (Kevin Costner’s Waterworld comes to mind). The boat Plastiki will be made from 90% recycled materials, the majority being 12,000 to 16,000 plastic bottles that make up the twin hulls. The label is removed from each two-liter plastic bottle, which is then washed, filled with a dry-ice powder, and resealed. The dry ice turns into carbon dioxide gas after it is heated, creating pressure in the bottle and keeping it rigid. After the hulls are completed, they will be wrapped in another recycled plastic - PET or polyethylene tephthalate (the same material the bottles are made out of). The PET panels will envelope the hull and the four-person cabin into a watertight space. The other 10% will be new materials for parts of the boat like the masts, which are metal. The power source will be drawn from solar panels and two wind turbines that will charge a mass of 12-volt batteries.  

De Rothschild wants to draw attention to the possibility of transforming consumer waste into a resource, ultimately focusing on the profitability of ‘cradle-to-cradle’ products instead of dead end products that only add to landfills. To further illustrate this concept, Plastiki will be disassembled after its trip and recycled, where it may turn into more bottles, plastic bags, or containers. 

Plastiki, a boat made of discarded plastic bottles, is certainly entering ‘unknown territory’ and the journey has the potential to be very dangerous, but the media attention it attracts will bring much needed awareness to consumer waste and recycling. We look to them for inspiration and wish them luck!

Elisabeth

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