Message in a bottle
to beat waste has global impact to create
change
After sailing more than 8,000 nautical miles
and spending 128 days crossing the Pacific,
the world's largest ocean, in a boat made
of 12,500 plastic PET bottles, the Plastiki
expedition and her crew have safely
and successfully reached their planned destination
of Sydney to cheers of welcome and support.
Sydney/Nairobi, 26 July
2010 - Arriving at Sydney Heads at 11.10am
local time with a 12 knot south south easterly
breeze, the Plastiki triumphantly sailed
into Sydney Harbour to cheers of welcome
and support from a small spectator flotilla..
The historic expedition was completed in
four legs : San Francisco ? Kiribati - Western
Samoa - New Caledonia before reaching the
Australian Coast (Mooloolaba) on Monday
19 July and continuing on to Sydney.
"It's an incredible
feeling to finally arrive in Sydney. We
had great faith in the design and construction
of Plastiki and while many people doubted
we'd make it, we have proved that a boat
made from plastic bottles can stand up to
the harsh conditions of the Pacific."
expedition leader, David de Rothschild said.
De Rothschild, 31 from
the United Kingdom, paid tribute to his
fellow adventurers, Jo Royle (Skipper),
David Thomson (Co-Skipper), Graham Hill
(Founder of Treehugger.com), Olav Heyerdahl,
Matthew Grey, Luca Babini (Photographer),
Vern Moen (Myoo Media Film maker), Max Jourdan
and Singeli Agnew (National Geographic Film
makers) for their skill and commitment during
the voyage.
"Jo and the rest
of the crew did a remarkable job sailing
the Plastiki safely across the Pacific and
it is due to their collective efforts that
we've been able to raise global awareness
of the issue of plastic waste in the world's
oceans.
If there's waste, it's
badly designed in the first place, and we
need to start taking a serious look at the
way we produce and design every product
we use in our lives," De Rothschild
said.
The Plastiki was officially
welcomed by Sydney's Deputy Lord Mayor,
Phillip Black and the US Ambassador to Australia,
Jeffrey Bleich when she docked at the Australian
National Maritime Museum, Darling Harbour.
Plastiki will be on public display for the
next month at the ANMM.
Over four months ago
on March 20, 2010, under the watchful eye
of a global audience, an inspiring yet experimental
and innovative one-of-a-kind catamaran set
sail under the shadow of San Francisco's
world famous Golden Gate Bridge. Carrying
a crew of six intrepid explorers, the Plastiki
set out on an epic and demanding mission
described by the San Francisco chronicle
as the "adventure of the century".
The pursuit of this
audacious and unrivalled ocean expedition:
to alert the world to the shocking and unnecessary
effects of single use plastics on the health
of our oceans and its inhabitants. According
to Expedition Leader and founder of Adventure
Ecology, David de Rothschild, this is a
complex, challenging and now hugely catastrophic
issue that scientists estimate is causing
devastation on an unprecedented scale -
every year at least one million seabirds
and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles
die when they become entangled or ingest
plastic pollution.
David de Rothschild
and the crew of the Plastiki have been on
a mission to not only beat waste but to
create a global message of hope by spotlighting
some of the real world solutions. After
braving the full extremes of the Pacific
Ocean one of the largest and most challenging
oceans in the world, the crew have fulfilled
their ambitious quest to effect a "global
message in a bottle", while setting
a new precedent within the sailing and adventure
community.
David and his team's
sheer determination to raise awareness of
plastic pollution has seen the crew tested
to the limit. From massive ocean swells
and 62 knot winds to the sweltering 100
degree heat and doldrums of the equator;
ripped sails, dangerous reefs and the intimidating
endless blue horizon; the team has been
driven to endure and overcome the challenges
by an infectious shared passion to give
our oceans a voice. Their unwavering belief
in the mission and the philosophy that if
we work together and are not afraid to rise
up to the challenge and tackle the 'just
that's the way we've done it' mentality
we can ultimately 'beat waste' and drive
home the solution, has seen them succeed
against the odds
The adventure began
four years ago for David after reading the
United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP)
report 'Ecosystems and Biodiversity in Deep
Waters and High Seas'. He developed a vision
to show that ultimately, waste was the result
of a combination of inefficient design and
a misunderstanding of how to use and more
importantly how to dispose of plastic. David
decided that by creating a seaworthy ocean
going vessel that gains 68% of its buoyancy
from 12,500 post consumer 2-litre plastic
bottles and an innovative smart new PET
super structure made from a uniquely recyclable
material called Seretex, he could help effect
change. The process of construction proved
that waste is a valuable resource whilst
also capturing the imagination of people
around the world to believe that anything
is possible if you're not afraid to break
new ground. The journey has generated opportunity
for tremendous curiosity, discovery and
innovation as well as a platform for discussion,
debate and now action.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary
General and Executive Director, UNEP said:
"Like millions upon millions of people
around the world, we have marvelled at the
ingenious, intrepid and inspirational voyage
of David de Rothschild and the crew of the
Plastiki. The message they have conveyed
to politicians and the public is simple?if
we collectively carry on using the seas
and oceans as a dustbin, human-beings will
soon turn the once beautiful and bountiful
marine environment from a crucial and economically-important
life-support system into a lifeless one.
Society needs to turn the tide in 2010 by
turning wastes and pollution from a problem
into an opportunity for a low carbon, resource
efficient global Green Economy so urgently
needed for a sustainable 21st century."
Throughout this incredible
journey the Plastiki crew?Expedition Leader
David de Rothschild, Skipper Jo Royle, Co-Skipper
David Thomson, Olav Heyerdahl, Graham Hill,
Luca Babini, Matthew Grey, Max Jourdan,
Singeli Agnew and Vern Moen? have had a
daily routine of living aboard a sustainable
ecosystem in the middle of the ocean alongside
the visual exposure to plastic waste discarded
in the ocean. According to De Rothschild,
this experience has served to reaffirm the
necessity and urgency to eliminate dumb,
single use plastics in our everyday lives
and help safeguard the delicate balance
of our planet's oceans.
David de Rothschild,
Adventure Ecology Founder said: "While
the successful and safe arrival of the Plastiki
into Sydney may mark the end of the actual
expedition it also marks the start of arguably
the most important and critical chapter
in the Plastiki's mission to beat waste;
a chapter of change! It's change that can
dramatically shift our daily habits away
from an unnecessary and destructive addiction
to single use plastics but even more importantly
and urgently a change in attitudes towards
understanding, valuing and protecting one
of our planet's most precious and important
natural systems, our oceans.
"To achieve this
lessening of humanity's increasingly destructive
stranglehold on our natural environments
is going to require a radical shift in the
current system and the stories that we tell
ourselves and each other. No longer is it
acceptable to continue just articulating
our Planet 1.0 failures, we must now show
leadership and vision to support the stories,
individuals and initiatives that help us
to dream bigger, undertake more compelling
adventures and fundamentally inspire, motivate
and innovate solutions. Our failure to achieve
such an outcome will undoubtedly leave humanity's
ability to live on this planet, as we know
it, in the balance. The time to give ourselves
a chance of survival is truly upon us,"
David de Rothschild said.
The plastiki story:
The Plastiki Expedition
was conceived and developed after Adventure
Ecology founder; David de Rothschild was
inspired by a UNEP report named 'Ecosystems
and Biodiversity in Deep Waters and High
Seas' in 2006 and Thor Heyerdahl's epic
1947 expedition, The Kon-Tiki.
A compelling and pioneering
expedition was created with the goal to
not only inform, but to educate the world
that waste is fundamentally inefficient
design.
Design, research, development,
construction and sea trials took place in
San Francisco.
The Plastiki set sail
from San Francisco on 20th March 2010.
Crewed by six people
at any one time ?David de Rothschild (Expedition
Leader), Jo Royle (Skipper), David Thomson
(Co-Skipper), Graham Hill (Founder of Treehugger.com),
Matthew Grey (Expedition Co-ordinator),
Luca Babini (Photographer), Vern Moen (Myoo
Media Film maker), Max Jourdan and Singeli
Agnew (National Geographic Film makers).
Completed in four legs
? San Francisco ? Kiribati -Western Samoa
-New Caledonia before reaching the Australian
Coast.
Tens of millions of
people are now aware of the Plastiki and
her message. Since launch over 90 media
interviews have been conducted from the
vessel, resulting in more than 300 print
articles, 200 radio and TV broadcasts, including
the Oprah Winfrey Show. There are over 800,000
search terms relating to Plastiki and 52,200
related images on Google.
The vessel:
The Plastiki's core
principles of 'cradle-to-cradle' design
and biomimicry were realised by a multifaceted
team from the fields of marine science,
sustainable design, boat building, architecture
and material science.
The Plastiki receives
68% of her buoyancy from 12,500 reclaimed
plastic soft drink bottles and the super
structure is made of a unique recyclable
plastic material made from a self-reinforcing
PET called Seretex.
The mast is a reclaimed
aluminium irrigation pipe. The one-of-a-kind
sail is hand-made from recycled PET cloth.
The secondary bonding
is reinforced using a newly developed organic
glue made from cashew nuts and sugar cane
The Plastiki is 'off-the-grid'
relying primarily on renewable energy systems
including; solar panels, wind and trailing
propeller turbines, bicycle generators,
a urine to water recovery and rain water
catchment system and a hydroponic rotating
cylinder garden.
Why?
It is estimated that
almost all of the marine pollution in the
world is comprised of plastic materials.
The average proportion varied between 60%
and 80% of total marine pollution.
In many regions in the
northern and southern Gyres, plastic materials
constitute as much as 90 to 95% of the total
amount of marine debris.²
Scientists estimate
that every year at least 1 million seabirds
and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles
die when become entangled in plastic pollution
or ingest it.³
According to Project
Aware, 15 billion pounds of plastic are
produced in the U.S. every year, and only
1 billion pounds are recycled. It is estimated
that in excess of 38 billion plastic bottles
and 25 million styrene foam cups end up
in landfill and although plastic bottles
are 100% recyclable, on average only 20%
are actually recycled.
The Plastiki crew noted
that whilst many thousands of miles away
from land, humanity's fingerprints were
visible throughout. On one day alone a garden
tray, two jerry cans, buoys and a large
white PVC tray floated by, with the usual
plastic bags, bottles, lids and styrene
foam containers. Whilst swimming they continually
noticed that beneath the surface there are
millions and millions of molecular pieces
of plastic photo degraded by salt and sunlight,
often known as mermaid's tears.
During the entire voyage
the Plastiki crew have seen no sharks and
have only caught a couple of fish, whereas
during the Kon-Tiki expedition of 1947 they
ate fish everyday and couldn't enter the
water for fear of sharks, whilst the Plastiki
have seen hardly any.
The Plastiki's philosophy:
It's about recognizing
that waste is fundamentally a design flaw
(it does not appear in nature).
It's about a better
understanding of the materials and their
lifecycle's used in our everyday lives and
using cyclical 'cradle-to-cradle' philosophies
rather than linear thinking when it comes
to how we design our world.
It's about being curious
and open, being prepared to let go of assumptions
in order to undertake a new 'Planet 2.0'
way of thinking and acting.
It's about being collaborative
and curious so to engage multiple perspectives,
skills, opinions and organizations.
It's about re-integrating
back into the web of life by recognizing
and reducing our human fingerprints on the
natural world.
It's about moving on
from just articulating the problems to inspiring
action of the solutions.
It's about encouraging
the world to reduce, reuse, recycle, rethink
and ultimately refuse single use plastics.
It's about acknowledging
that the list of solutions available is
far greater than the list of problems.
It's about delivering
a spectacular global "Message in a
Bottle".
What Next?
A lasting legacy of
the Plastiki will be its capacity to shift
public thinking and perception from plastic
as the enemy to plastic becoming part of
the solution. To solve the plastic pollution
and waste issues at large will require a
re-think of how we currently use, reuse
and ultimately dispose of plastics and waste
products.
Post arrival the Plastiki
crew will take part in a number of talks,
keynotes and discussions to explore the
solutions to the increasing damage of the
natural world resulting from plastic pollution.
The vessel itself will be exhibited at the
Australian National Maritime Museum as a
representation of the available solutions
in our repairing and reintegrating with
the natural world.
Long-term projects include
the Plastiki Pod; each pod will be tailor
made to help solve ecological issues specific
to each of the islands that the Plastiki
visited during her voyage across the Pacific.
Short term and long term solutions will
be addressed with educational resources
made available to the local communities.
One of Plastiki's goals
and lasting legacies will be to see a significant
reduction in the amount of manmade waste
heading out to landfill and sea. We believe
that with a small effort and some smart
thinking everyone could reduce their use
of single purpose plastic bottles, plastic
bags and styrene foam. It's achievable if
we work together on making small changes
in our lives like the MyPlastiki pledge
or remembering the 5R's: reduce, reuse,
recycle, rethink and ultimately refuse plastic
waste. To make your pledge for a plastic
free ocean and more positive, ecological
initiatives please log on to myplastiki.com
Media Instructions: From 1 July, 2010, Momentum2
is managing the media for the Plastiki's
arrival.
Plastiki Partners:
About International
Watch Co. Ltd: Official Partner
IWC Schaffhausen has
been setting standards in technological
development and highly complicated Haute
Horlogerie for more than a century. The
International Watch Company, founded in
1868, has established a world reputation
for itself as a Swiss watch manufactory
with a long heritage and a passion for ingenious
inventions, innovative solutions and technical
refinements. IWC Schaffhausen is committed
to taking responsibility toward the environment
and has been certified a CO2-neutral enterprise.
IWC has cut 1000 tons
of annual CO2 emissions in half since 2001,
and aims to reduce emissions to 100 tons
by 2010. It used environmentally responsible
building techniques for new production wings
at its headquarters in Schaffhausen, Switzerland,
in 2001, significantly reducing CO2 emissions
and keeping overall energy consumption constant
for five years. www.iwc.com. IWC Schaffhausen
has supported Adventure Ecology and David
de Rothschild as official Partner since
2007. " As a company which holds the
environment dear, IWC is very proud of David
de Rothschild and of the fact that, with
our support, he is using his adventurous
voyage to show the consequences of the modern
way of life and providing an impetus for
innovative suggestions of how to solve the
ecological problems of our age," states
Georges Kern, CEO of IWC Schaffhausen.
About Hewlett-Packard
Company: Official Technology Partner
HP and the environment
For decades HP has been
an environmental leader, driving company
stewardship through its HP Eco Solutions
program, which spans product design, reuse
and recycling as well as energy and resource
efficiency. HP influences industry action
by setting high environmental standards
in its operations and supply chain, by providing
practical solutions to make it easier for
customers to reduce their climate impact
and through its research on sustainability
solutions that support a low-carbon economy.
More information is available at http://www.hp.com/ecosolutions.
HP, the world's largest technology company,
simplifies the technology experience for
consumers and businesses with a portfolio
that spans printing, personal computing,
software, services and IT infrastructure.
More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is
available at http://www.hp.com/
About Inmarsat: Global
Satellite Communications Sponsor
Inmarsat plc (LSE: ISAT)
is the leading provider of global mobile
satellite communications services. Since
1979, Inmarsat has been providing reliable
voice and high-speed data communications
to governments, enterprises and other organizations,
with a range of services that can be used
on land, at sea or in the air. The company's
services are delivered through a global
network of more than 400 distribution partners
and service providers operating in 100 countries.
For the year ended 31 December 2008, Inmarsat
plc had total revenue of US$ 996.7 million
(2007: US$576.5 million) with an EBITDA
of US$531.2 million (2007: US$388.1 million).
For more information, please visit www.inmarsat.com.
About Kiehl's: Supplier
Kiehl's was founded
as an old-world apothecary in New York's
East Village neighbourhood. Its unique and
extensive background represents a blend
of cosmetic, pharmaceutical, herbal, and
medicinal knowledge developed and passed
on through the generations. The spirit of
discovery and the exhilaration of exploration
have been espoused by Kiehl's extended family
from the company's earliest days. Kiehl's
is humbly honoured to support the eco-adventurous
Plastiki Expedition team since 2008 and
to welcome them into the Kiehl's heritage.
In 1988, Kiehl's proudly supported a successful
ascent without oxygen of Mt. Everest's East
Face. In 2002, the company sponsored the
Antarctica Expedition of Mt. Vinson and
in 2005, Kiehl's supported the "Greenland
First Ascent" expedition, the inaugural
climb of peaks rising from the island's
ice covered glaciers where a team returned
from their journey with first-hand accounts
of the effects of global warming. In addition
between 2003-2007 Kiehl's supported the
annual Kiehl's Badwater Ultra-marathon,
a 135-mile non-stop footrace through Death
Valley. Kiehl's believes in minimizing environmental
impact by utilizing minimal product packaging
and 100% PCR materials whenever possible
and initiating a world-wide recycling program
in freestanding stores. Kiehl's products
are available at www.Kiehls.com, freestanding
stores, as well as through select specialty
retailers worldwide.
Adventure Ecology: Adventure
Ecology uses the magic and excitement of
unique field missions to educate, entertain
and raise awareness of environmental and
social issues whilst driving innovative
real world solutions. Adventure Ecology's
long-term vision is to create a global,
youth-based community of change-makers that
learn, share, speak and most importantly
act to address our global sustainability
issues in order to promote a greater respect,
connection and responsibility for our Planet,
its environment, species and people.Adventure
Ecology tells adventurous stories that educate,
entertain and promote a new 'smart' thinking
for a better 'Planet 2.0'. www.adventureecology.com
Wildlife Trade Regulation Needed More Than
Ever
