David De Rothschild,the 31 year old environmentalist, adventurer and banking heir, set sail Saturday with a crew of six on the Plastiki, a catamaran made from 12,000 plastic bottles. Rothschild anticipates that the 11,000 nautical mile journey from San Francisco to Sydney will take at least three months.

Rothschild planned this voyage in an effort to raise awareness of the plastic pollution in the Pacific Ocean. The intended route that will take them through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. See Greenlegals’ previous post about the Pacific garbage patch here.

The name “Plastiki,” pays homage to Thor Heyerdahl’s ocean voyage on Kon Tiki, a raft made from balsa wood and materials native to South America. Heyerdahl’s voyage showed that it was possible for primitive peoples to sail from South America across the Pacific to Polynesia.

The Plastiki was built in San Francisco in 2009 and has been tested on San Francisco Bay. To create sufficient buoyancy, the catamaran’s plastic bottles used in the twin hulls are filled with CO2. The rest of the boat is made from PET, a hard plastic.

Rothschild’s adventure is not without its critics. They have pointed out that if the Plastiki runs into trouble en route, all those plastic bottles filled with CO2 could wind up polluting in the ocean Rothschild is trying to protect.

You can follow the voyage of the Plastiki at http://www.theplastiki.com/

Read more:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/20/BAIO1CILMT.DTL#ixzz0io5EeiI5

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/20/BAIO1CILMT.DTL#ixzz0io5T7kn4

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8578587.stm

http://greenlegals.com/?s=garbage+patch&x=0&y=0

Video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN4zvl5Kr0k

Copyright 2010 - K.J.Collins