Waste is a design flaw

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Meer over de achtergronden van het probleem en ook de kortzichtige quote
"‘De Europese Commissie beschikt niet over afdoende wetenschappelijk
bewijs voor het bestaan van een eiland van afval in de Stille Oceaan’,
laat de woordvoerder van milieucommissaris Dimas weten. ‘Mocht dat
bewijs er komen, dan is het een zaak voor de landen in wier territoriale
wateren het eiland ligt, of moet de VN ernaar kijken’, aldus Dimas, die
al helemaal niet wil ingaan op ‘de hypothese dat een dergelijk eiland in
de Atlantische Oceaan ontstaat’. -De Volkskrant"
http://www.projectkaisei.org/

Het 'hele' verhaal over de Plastiki (een catamaran van o.a. 12000
PET-flessen) op een grafische afbeelding:
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2010/02/23/science/23sciillo_graphic.html

Australia Museum blogs about the Plastiki
http://www.adventureecology.com/blog/?p=509
February 18th, 2010 by AE Team

One man’s environmental dream becomes a reality and he is educating the
planet to consider waste as a resource. The Plastiki is history in the
making!

I would like to share something I find really inspiring and the reason I
find this inspiring is that a problem is highlighted and a solution is
offered.

The answer to climate change and other environmental issues is finding
different ways of doing things through system changes.

We are living is an era of environmental madness where we are continuing
to do the same thing over and over again and getting the same crazy
destructive result. Our planet cannot sustain this and it is time for
change.

So what if I told you that it is possible to build a 20 metre catamaran
made from reclaimed plastic bottles, self reinforced P.E.T and recycled
waste products. Would you believe me?

Well it is possible and it has just finished being built and in a matter
of weeks it will set sail from San Francisco via the Pacific Ocean and
the expedition will finish here in Sydney.

This amazing vessel is called Plastiki and it is a symbol of what is
possible and what is necessary. Its mission is to educate as many people
as possible on how to beat waste and re-think waste as a resource.

We all know that waste contributes to climate change and I have
previously blogged about waste in our oceans, the Great Pacific Garbage
Patch and plastic bottles. The most important fact about waste is when
we throw things away there is no “away”. All the waste goes somewhere
and in the not too distant future “away” will be full. Then what?

Plastiki will venture past the Great Pacific Garbage patch on its
journey to Australia. Plastiki will also be stopping off at Pacific
islands along the way and the crew will be learning and highlighting
environmental issues facing each of them.

How did Plastiki come to be? An environmental adventurer by the name of
David de Rothschild read a 2006 UNEP report that said “that there is an
average of forty six thousand pieces of plastic debris floating on or
near the surface of every square mile of ocean”

David’s reaction to this information was the same as anyone’s that read
the report BUT it is David’s re-action to this knowledge that is unique
and inspiring.
David came up with the idea of using plastic bottles to build the
Plastiki to show how we can beat waste by reusing it.

I admire David for what he is trying to achieve, he is thinking about
the future (my future and the planets) and through adventure will
hopefully inspire action to reduce, reuse and recycle more of our
natural resources.

It has taken David a few years to get to this point. David has a great
team around him and the skipper for this adventure is Jo Royle who is an
experienced ocean sailor and she too cares about waste and the affect it
is having on our planet.

Plastiki was designed based on “cradle to cradle’ principles and
biomimicry. “Cradle to Cradle” is the idea that at the end of life, any
product can be turned into something else close to the cycle so that
ultimately there is no waste. Biomimicry is innovation inspired by
nature and looking to nature for solutions.

The Plastiki Expedition is about:

Explaining how waste is a design flaw.

It is about getting us to understand about the materials used in our
everyday lives and question where they come from, what is it actually
made from and will it harm us or the planet and how can we reuse it when
we have finished with it. When you have a look around you nearly
everything is made of plastic and maybe we need to be asking ourselves
is it necessary.

It is about rethinking and just because we have always done it this way
we need to ask the question is there a better, safer way.

It is about getting the world to work together, from our world leaders
down to us.

Change takes time and sometimes we have to unlearn things and relearn a
better way to have a better outcome.

At the end of her journey Plastiki will be dismantled and up-cycled.

To find out more about Plastiki go the website: www.theplastiki.com

I had a moment like David’s when he read the UN report. I was in Paris
in 2008. I was visiting the Louvre Museum and I was walking along the
fountain walls and saw lots and lots of plastic bottles in the drain of
the beautiful fountain. I could not believe how many there were and I
thought to myself this is not right but what can I do about it and why
doesn’t anyone care? Why do we need the single use plastic water bottle?
Why do people think it is ok to just throw these bottles anywhere?

I wish David, Jo and the team a safe, fun and learning adventure and
look forward to greeting them when they arrive in our beautiful harbour
in a few months time.
The only problem the crew may encounter as they enter our waters is that
they may have to fight off a small female pirate trying to hitch a ride
– arghhh –death to the plastic bottle!

I believe we need a future that doesn’t have limits, pollution and so
much waste.

Wouldn’t it be great to create and design things that didn’t harm the
environment but was actually good for it?

By Parrys Raines

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