Plastic bottle raft sails out of Long Beach for Hawaii

Junk -- a raft made of 15,000 plastic bottles, a repurposed old Cessna 310 airplane, and other odds and ends -- set sail from Long Beach today to make its 6-week trip to Hawaii.

The trip, put together by the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, is intended to to raise awareness about the devastation wreaked on our oceans by our one-use plastic habit. We have a "Pacific Garbage Patch"  in the Pacific that takes up an area twice the size of the U.S., as Anna Cummins of the AMRF wrote about a couple weeks ago.

A big crowd showed up to bid adieu to the intrepid sailors, Marcus Eriksen (right, holding up a sample of the "plastic soup" from the "Pacific Garbage Patch") and Joel Paschal. Many local enviro orgs, including Heal the Bay and Surfrider Foundation, came to commend the sailors' efforts and wish them luck. Students from Santa Monica High School presented the crew with a braided plastic bag rope.

Follow the journey online via the JUNK blog, which will be updated regularly with info and images during the trip.

Long Beach's ocean water itself could use some de-plasticking and a general cleanup. Lots of plastic bottles, potato chip bags and other debris floated around Junk raft's starting point.

Photos by Siel

Comments

[dave99]

Ever heard of hypermiling to achieve double your current gas mileage?I hope Siel can promote hypermiling on her blog as it is something that can reduce gas use by 20-50% in this country and can be done so at no cost and considerable financial gains through cost savings.
High mpg is achieved by changing bad driving habits to no driving over 55mph and by over-inflating your tires and other methods.You can easily get 70-100mpg in a prius and 70mpg in an escape.You have to drive slower and more prudently.CNN had a special on it today http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/ and you can go here to see the techniques to achieve super high mpg http://www.cleanmpg.com/cmps_index.php?page=hypermiling and here http://ecomodder.com/forum/ecomodding.html

[Liz]

Great, the freeways are messed up enough already, now every that shuts off their car can take a chance that it doesn't start and really slowdown the drive for all the rest of us.

[dave99]

And that ignorance is why we pay 4$ gas and 4 trillion dollar wars to support your gross waste and consumption so you can get home 3 minutes earlier in the evening...You wouldnt happen to drive an suv as well?Hope you enjoy 10$ gas.

[phyllis44]

If you look closely at the sail of the JUNK, you'll see our school, MUSE is proudly listed there as a sponsor!

Dr. Marcus spoke at our Speaker Series last month. What an inspiration for us!!

Our Lavender Faire (Goes Green) is in Malibu this weekend, Sunday 8th. Stop by for organic food, green gifts, booths, and music by the Kathryn Grimm Band, Donna De Lory and Suzanne Teng. Special kids entertainment like the FocusFish Flying Circus, too.