Plastiki goes to war with waste

By Tamara Smallhorn

Sydney welcomed a unique visitor to its shores last week.

The Plastiki, an 18-metre ocean-going catamaran made from 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles, sailed into Sydney Harbour last Monday following an impressive four-month trans-Pacific voyage from San Francisco.

Brainchild of prominent British environmentalist and expedition leader, David de Rothschild, the Plastiki was conceived to raise awareness about the vast amounts of highly-toxic plastic and Styrofoam waste harming the environment and threatening marine life world wide.

Skipper and environmental scientist, Jo Royle, said the crew of six was thrilled with the community response to the Plastiki.

“It’s been incredible. We had a quarter of a million hits on our website and 200 articles published in one day,” she said.

“We’ve definitely sparked people’s curiosity.”

Ms Royle said the Plastiki expedition was about challenging people to come up with innovative ways of cutting down on harmful waste, including re-using it.

“You have to respond to the changing environment. We need to use waste as a resource,” she said.

“If you can’t reduce it, re-use it; if you can’t re-use it, recycle it.”

A passionate advocate for environmental conservation, as well as an accomplished sailor, Ms Royle welcomed Rothschild’s invitation to get involved in the Plastiki project back in 2008.

“David was looking for a sailor with an environmental science background and I really fit the bill,” she said.

Royle teamed up with three other people, including prominent naval architect Andy Dovell, to build Rothschild’s yacht, an exercise which took about a year and a half.

“The plastic bottles fill the twin hulls and make up 80 per cent of the boat’s buoyancy, so they’re really intrinsic to the design.”

The bottles were reinforced with dry ice to make them strong enough to withstand the force of the ocean swells.

Apart from the plastic bottles, the rest of the boat is constructed from a single polymer – the same chemical material used to make the plastic bottles. Its electrical systems are powered by a combination of solar panels, bicycle generators, and wind turbines.

Royle confesses she wasn’t without her concerns before embarking on the unprecedented voyage.

“The scariest thing was not knowing the material and how it was going to work,” she said.

“But we had a very experienced naval architect so that gave me a great deal of confidence in the expedition.

“And obviously it worked.”

Sydneysiders can see the Plastiki for the next three weeks at the Australian National Maritime Museum’s Display Pontoon in Darling Harbour where it will be moored til Sunday August 22 before embarking on a world-wide shore tour.