A Boat Designed With Waste In Mind

Ever hear of The Plastiki?

I saw the word for the first time this morning. It was listed on Yahoo's homepage as the No. 3 trending topic. I have to admit, I was kind of excited as I thought of the possibilities of its meaning. Was it a cool new "as seen on TV" gadget that I just had to have? Was it a new wiki for me to check out? Or maybe the latest fashion trend???

When I clicked the link, my excitement grew even more. Turns out, The Plastiki is the name of a boat, a boat made from 12,500 plastic bottles!!!

 

The Plastiki took off on a major voyage on Saturday. The crew will be sailing across the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco, California to Sydney, Australia. The 60-foot boat is completely self-sufficient, and in addition to the 12,500 plastic bottles, The Plastiki has solar panels, a bio-diesel engine (for emergency use only), bicycle generators, a mast made from an irrigation pipe, and sails made from recycled PET (Polyethylene terephthalate).

The Plastiki was built by Adventure Ecology, a group that "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." With the Plastiki, the group is presenting the philosophy that waste is fundamentally a design flaw. Adventure Ecology would like people to re-think waste as a resource. Now that's what I call a message in a bottle! My only question is this: will cool projects like this give people an excuse to continue to waste??? What do you think?

Check out the website for The Plastiki to find out more about how the boat was made, to see close-up photos of the boat, and to learn the status of its voyage to Sydney.

Have you ever made anything out of recycled waste? Leave a comment and tell me about it!