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'Plastiki,' a Boat Made From 12,500 Plastic Bottles, Sails Across the Pacific

by Caleb Johnson on July 28, 2010 at 05:20 PM


A boat constructed from thousands of plastic bottles has completed its journey across the Pacific Ocean, from San Francisco to Sydney Harbor. According to Popular Science, the Plastiki, which is a catamaran made from about 12,500 plastic bottles, sailed more than 9,000 miles in four months to raise awareness of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch -- a pile of waste the size of Texas that's floating just under the ocean's surface between California and Hawaii. The Plastiki team sailed right through it with hopes of letting people know the detrimental effects this garbage has on the ocean and its inhabitants. The team also wanted people to realize how much plastic we throw away; they noted that, over the course of their journey, U.S. residents used 8.7 billion plastic bottles, which could have been used to build 700,000 Plastiki boats.

It wasn't all smooth sailing for the Plastiki crew, unfortunately. Just off the coast of Australia, the boat encountered a storm with 70-mph winds and 30-foot swells. It remained intact, however, and will spend the next month on display at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney. Check out a video on the construction of the ship after the break. [From: Popular Science]

Tags: boat, environment, GreatPacificGarbagePatch, green, ocean, plastic, plastiki, recycle, recycling, sailing, top, transportation, trash, waste

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