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August 8, 2008

Sailing from California to Hawaii on 15,000 plastic bottles

JUNK is a raft made from recycled and discarded materials, that is sailing from California to Hawaii to highlight the problems caused in the ocean by discarded plastics.


Built only from discarded materials, and held together using knots, this is a perfect example of modern pioneering,even if the materials used might not what we traditionally think of as pioneered materials. The beginnings of the substructure are visible here, with aluminium spars being fastened together with nylon kern-mantel rope.

While 'traditional' Trans-pacific rafts use a palm and timber hut for shelter, JUNK has the fuselage of a light aircraft that provides shelter.


The floats that provide buoyancy are used soft-drink bottles held together by large nets. Some of the ropes on board are even made out of braided plastic bags.

As I write this JUNK has around 999 miles to go before she lands in Hawaii- and even this far out at sea they are surrounded by plastic litter. Head over to the blog to keep up to date with their news, posted from the middle of the Pacific Ocean!

(all images on this post are courtesy junkraft.blogspot.com)

1 comment:

TaffGoch said...

Reminds me of the floating island, built on 250,000 plastic bottles:

http://www.spiralislanders.com/

Ocean-going, though...
Woo-ee, that takes guts!