Plastic is all around us. Practically everything we own and use is made from plastic. One plastic product that has a huge impact on the environment and causes unnecessary ecological damage is the single use plastic water bottle. The whole process of producing plastic bottles has an impact on the environment. There is the production, the shipping, the storage, the refrigeration and then the bottles are thrown out ending up as land fill or in some cases a small percentage is recycled. Using something once and then throwing it away is not logical, there is no “away”. Soon "away" will be full and what will we do then?

The bottles that end up in land fill just create piles of toxic waste which then seeps into the soil and our rivers and oceans. A lot of the plastic ends up in our oceans and causes more ecological problems and it just looks disgusting - yuk! The price of overconsumption and the lack of recycling plastics has created something called The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a soupy mix of plastics floating around in the Pacific Ocean.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is an accumulation of different plastics floating around in an area of the Pacific Ocean. It is made up of discarded plastics and sadly this mess is getting bigger, yes bigger. In this soupy mixture you can find cigarette filters, drink bottles, food wrappers, plastic bags, fishing line and nets. All this plastic that has become the Garbage Patch has accumulated with the help of ocean currents. In this part of the Pacific you can find more plastic than you can find Plankton. Can you believe this? It just is not right - it is causing this ecosystem to become unbalanced. It is not only the plastic floating around on the surface that is a worry it is the plastic that you can’t see that is the big problem. The plastic does break down to tiny pieces and then it is eaten by marine life and then eventually eaten by us.

All this plastic ends up in the ocean through rubbish coming out of storm water drains, ships and other vessels, oil and gas platforms and the lack of proper waste disposal on land. 80% of the rubbish comes from land sources and the other 20% comes from ships. The impact on marine life is huge. The marine life mistakes the plastic for food; this causes physical and mental deformities when consumed and they choke on it too. A lot of the marine life ends up getting tangled up in the mess and this causes suffocation, starvation, injury and in some cases death, they drown. The problem is so big now that cleaning it up is not possible. What we need is to ensure no more plastic reaches our oceans. We all must be more conscious of purchasing plastics and recycling them. We need a solution and it is called The Plastiki. 

The Plastiki is a cataraman made from mainly plastic bottles. The idea of building this cool cataraman belongs to a passionate enviornmentalist named David de Rothschild. It has taken David a few years to get his idea/dream to a stage where he will be navigating the Plastiki across the Pacific Ocean via the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. His hard work and determination will pay off as the world sits backs, watches and learns from his adventure.

This inspirational adventure is bringing a message to the world that we can use waste as a resource. I support David 100% on his adventure and will follow him and his crew as they navigate the Plastiki from San Francisco to Sydney. The name of the skipper of the Plastiki is Jo Royle and she will use her sailing skills to help navigate the Plastiki into history - Go girl!!

Good Luck David! I admire you and I am proud of you and what you are trying to achieve - you rock!!!!!!!!!!!

I will keep you up to date on what is happening throughout the journey which will begin soon but in the mean time you can visit the official expedition site to learn more about the Plastiki. It is incredible to read how this awesome vessel has been built and the renewable energy that will be used to help the crew on its journey. www.theplastiki.com 

Imagine if we applied the knowledge we are learning from Plastiki. Imagine our oceans free from plastic. Imagine a world where we work in harmony with nature, not pollute it. Imagine a world where everyone has clean air, clean food and water, good health and the world works together to build a sustainable future for us and our planet - imagine! 

As part of my role as a member of team Plastiki you can read my blog about the Plastiki expedition here: http://www.australianmuseum.net.au/blogpost/Plastiki-A-solution-to-waste  Stay tuned to watch this amazing adventure unfold!

"If we want to move towards a low-polluting, sustainable society, we need to get consumers to think about their purchases" David Suzuki