Great examples do exist!

After arriving in Bangladesh after a hard trip through India, we quickly noticed that something was different. Especially once we arrived at a local market to buy some fresh fruits. Usually when one buys vegetables, fruits, meat or fish, a plastic bag is the most common thing for packaging. In Bangladesh, you much rather get all of these goods in a simple paper bag, which is made out of old newspapers or old office notes (depending on the bag size). It really looks quite neat as well.
Of course, we were more than interested in the reason for this because – as already said – it was an uncommon way of packaging, especially in a third world country (no offense). After speaking to some students, we were told that the government of Bangladesh imposed a total ban on plastic bags back in 2002. Then, studies of the huge floods between 1988 and 1998 showed, that the major culprit for these flooding’s were discarded plastic bags which choked the drainage system in Dhaka and other large cities. So it might not have been an environmental issue but more a life-saving one. In the end it doesn’t matter. Fact is, plastic bags are banned in Bangladesh.

It was so surprising to us, that Bangladesh is the leading edge on that topic. Up to this day, some other countries followed this great example (like for example Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa and Kenya) and hopefully others will do too.

Others should follow.

Have a look at other countries all over South East Asia (and the world) like Cambodia or Laos. The roadsides are full of plastic bags, which last for decades … look at the markets after a busy day – it looks horrible! Sure, someone will clean it up but in the end all the bags end up somewhere at the town outskirts, ready to get blown away with the wind in all direction. Or they litter it straight into the river, which leads into the ocean. And then we get huge plastic gyre like the one in the North Pacific, better known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. That can’t be the right way to go, can it?!

So yes, Bangladesh has a lot of other issues to tackle but the plastic ban is a great example into the right direction.

What is the Plastiki anyway?

The Plastiki is an 18 m long catamaran made out of 12.500 reclaimed plastic bottles and other waste products. The name might sound familiar to book worms & adventurers…its origin comes from one of the most famous rafts in the world. Do you remember the adventures of Thos Heyerdahl? He crossed the Pacific ocean in 1947 on the Kon-Tiki. The parts that I remember the most out of the book were the stories about the crews encounter with giant squids and sharks. For me, there is almost no greater classic among adventure books than this 104-day-long raft ride from South America to Polynesia. 6 men fighting the elements on a hand-made balsa wood vesel. Insane! As soon as you start reading the book, you won’t be able to put it down! Anyway, now back to The Plastiki ;)

The Plastiki – a catamaran made out of plastic bottles. Photo credit © The Plastiki

The crew.

Skipper: Jo Royle
Co-skipper: David Thompson
Expedition diver: Olav Heyerdahl
Filmmakers: Max Jourdan & Vern Moen
Expedition leader: David de Rothschild

The Plastiki crew. Photo credit © The Plastiki

The voyage across the pacific.

In March of 2010, the crew set their sails. But before they did so, the boat was tested for 3 days to make sure she was seaworthy. When she was, their starting point was San Francisco and by the end of July 2010, The Plastiki sailed into Darling Harbour in Sydney. It crossed the Pacific ocean in about four months with more than 10.000 km behind them. It was planned that during the trip, the crew would pass several sites of ecological importance (like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch) or which were susceptible to environmental issues (caused by global warming).

The map of the voyage. Photo credit © The Plastiki

So what did they eat?

This is an interesting question…you might think that the crew ate fish every single day. I mean they sailed across the Pacific ocean, right?! Well, think again…Quote: The Plastiki crew have managed to catch only 3 fish in 40 days, whilst during the Kon-Tiki expedition (over 40 years ago), the crew ate freshly caught fish every day and couldn’t enter the water for fear of sharks. The Plastiki crew have seen no sharks during their expedition. What does that tell us? Overfishing, overfishing & more overfishing…

So why did David de Rothschild want to sail across the Pacific on a plastic boat?

Well, he wanted to do it for a couple of very good reasons: To demonstrate the amazing things people can achieve when recycling their junk & at the same time to show people what happens when they don’t…

Quoted from the website:

• It is estimated that almost all of the marine pollution in the world is comprised of plastic materials. The average proportion varied between 60% and 80% of total marine pollution.

• In many regions in the northern and southern Gyres, plastic materials constitute as much as 90 to 95% of the total amount of marine debris.

• Scientists estimate that every year at least 1 million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die when they entangle themselves in plastic pollution or ingest it.

• According to Project Aware, 15 billion pounds of plastic are produces in the U.S. every year, and only 1 billion pounds are recycled. It is estimated that in excess of 38 billion plastic bottles and 25 million Styrofoam cups end up in landfill and although plastic bottles are 100% recyclable, on average only 20% are actually recycled.

My opinion.

I think that this project is absolutely great! Showing people, what you can do with recycled stuff and documenting the whole story around it is fantastic. The Plastiki is a one-of-a-kind project and a good example for other people. Well done!

The Plastiki sailing into the sunset. Photo credit © The Plastiki

How to get rid of them.

So what do you do with old subways? You could either cut them up with machines and reuse the metal. But what if the walls and floors are polluted with asbestos (used as fireprotection)? Well, just throw it into the Atlantic!? Enraged environmentalists couldn’t believe this idea. What about nature!? Well, exactly that was the point: nature should profit from this “weird” idea.

That can’t be good.

Today, more that 1.200 old subways lie on the bottom if the Atlantic and even the environmentalists agree with this crazy plan. You’re probaly thinking the same thing I thought at this point: “So you can’t reuse the metal because of the asbestos, yet throwing it into the ocean is ok?!” Well, here’s how the situation looks: All the wheels, windows, doors and lubricants are cleared off the subways until only the covering is left. The asbestos remains but many researchers have found out, that it’s no danger to the under water life (I’m still not convinced but ok…). Just off the coast of New Jersey, Delaware and Virgina, huge derricks then throw the skeletons into the water.

Their new life.

As soon as the subways sunk to the ground, their new life begins. New guest arrive and settle down there. Where before there was only sand, there now is an artificial reef. Environmentalists are happy with this, yet still say that animals should live in their natural habitats…

My opinion: Out of sight, out of mind.

It’s clear that if you throw something into the water, fish and other animals will come. But (and this is a big but), why do we have the right to use the ocean as our dumping ground? Just recently I posted an article about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and even though the subways might be more “animal friendly” than plastic, the end result is still the same: We humans want to get rid of our garbage and therefore use every possible opportunity to do that;  “Out of sight, out of mind” is all I can say to that. In the long run, it’ll all come back anyway…

Subway Graveyard. © Photo credit: Stephen Mallon.

Subway Graveyard. © Photo credit: Stephen Mallon.

Subway Graveyard. © Photo credit: Stephen Mallon.

Subway Graveyard. © Photo credit: Stephen Mallon.

Charles Moore loves the ocean, especially the widths of the pacific. This changed in 1997 when he and his crew were on their way back home from Hawaii where they had just won the third place in the “Transpac sailing race”. Moore was looking for a fast way to Los Angeles and therefore decided to take a short-cut through the so called “North Pacific Gyre” – one of the most remote places in the ocean. Most sailors avoid this route and fisherman are seen very rarely. Maybe this is because of what Charles Moore found out: the colourful flashing on the sea-surface doesn’t come from fish but plastic garbage.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. For many people, the idea of a “garbage patch” conjures up images of an island of trash floating on the ocean. In reality, these patches are almost entirely made up of tiny bits of plastic, called micro-plastics.

The crew saw plastic parts of all sizes floating on the ocean. Moore recognized disposable razors, bottles, fasteners, CD covers, bags and shoes. “It might sound unbelievable but there was not a single clear spot around us. It didn’t matter where we looked, garbage was floating around us everywhere”, Moore remembers.

As soon as he was back home, the sailor started informing the world about “the worlds largest dumping ground”. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the North Pacific is the most well known example of a gigantic environmental disaster. Even experts can only guess its dramatic magnitude.

The Plastic Garbage Patch is twice the size of Texas. But where did this trash come from? Marine biologists estimate that about 80 % of the litter is from land, either dumped directly into waterways or blown into rivers and streams.

Map of the worldwide garbage vortexes. Apart from the infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is made up of plastics, chemical sludge and other marine debris drawn in by a vortex formed by rotating currents, scientists believe there are four other major gyres and associated garbage patches in the Indian Ocean, North Atlantic, South Atlantic and South Pacific. Illustration Credit: Plastiki.com.

So, does there float one large garbage-carpet between Hawaii and the USA? Or are there two (each one as large as middle Europe)? Because the majority of garbage is underneath the surface (and in depths up to 10 meters), satellite measurings can only show the vague expansion. However it is sure that there’s plastic garbage everywhere. Particularly high is the density in regions where the air current (as in the North Pacific) causes strong ocean vortexes. There are five of such vortexes that experts know of.

Water covers more than 70 % of the planet’s surface. This makes our rivers, lakes and oceans the lifeblood of our planet. Many of the animals living in these habitats may be extinct very soon. Experts say plastic trash has already killed millions of sea birds and marine mammals.

Marine debris can be very harmful to marine life in the gyre. For instance, loggerhead sea turtles often mistake plastic bags for jellies, their favorite food. Albatrosses mistake plastic resin pellets for fish eggs and feed them to chicks, which die of starvation or ruptured organs. Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Of the 225 million tons of synthetic materials (which are produced each year), approximately 10 % lands in the ocean at some point. According to the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) more than 100 million tons of plastic garbage float at sea.

So what can we do?

The Ocean Conservancy gives a list of 10 tips for helping out:

• Volunteer for a beach or river clean-up effort.
• Put trash in a secure, lidded receptacle – most marine debris starts out on land.
• Properly recycle everything you can in your area.
• When boating, bring your trash back to shore, and ask your marina to handle waste properly.
• Less is more: Don’t buy stuff you don’t need, and choose items that use less packaging.
• Inform and inspire your friends and co-workers to help stop marine debris at the source.
• Bring your own containers for picnics instead of using disposables. Take your own reusable bags whenever you go shopping.
• Write to companies or visit local businesses and encourage them to reuse, recycle, and generate less packaging.
• Put cigarette butts in ashtrays, not on streets, side-walks, or beaches.
• Tell Congress it’s time to stop trashing our ocean. Take action now and send an email to your representative!