sailing a junk raft to hawaii

Junk Raft Dr Markus Erickson and Joel Pashal from the Algalita Marine Research Foundation are sailing to Hawaii from Long Beach California with a raft constructed from trash. This sailable raft is made from a 1961 Cessna airplane, tied to sailboat masts with plastic bag rope, and 15,000 PET bottles in fishing-nets that make it float. ‘We were looking for something that was lightweight and could stand the banging of the Ocean.’

Students from three high schools helped with the construction of the raft, they made rope from plastic bags and cleaned the PET-bottles. What a great school project!

With this action the men want to call attention to plastic soup which is now floating in the Pacific Ocean.

View all their videos at Annarubiecita.

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free range studios: gorilla in the greenhouse: the great pacific garbage patch

This is a great video for kids brought to us by Free Range Studios--the makers of Store Wars. It shows kids that Great Pacific Garbage Patch-where our plastic trash is swirling in the ocean.

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sculptures by the sea: sydney australia

Sculpture By The Sea, an annual event held in Sydney Australia on Bondi Beach. The three week event stretching from Bondi to Tamarama along the coastal walk, it is Australia's largest annual outdoor free to the public exhibition of sculpture.---featuring over 100 sculptures from 18 different countries. Below are Broken Family by Anthony Haywood, an elephant made from TV's and other household waste and Anemone by Tim Ferrier a geometric form made with discarded street signs.
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heal the ocean: grassroots organization santa barbara

Heal the Ocean



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teenager discovers scientific breakthrough for plastic decomposition

Daniel Burd, an 11th grader from Canada thought that since plastic will eventually decompose after 1,000 years on its own--that there must be a factor causing it. For his science fair project, he looked for the naturally occurring microorganisms behind this decomposition.

Burd isolated two strains of bacteria (Sphingomonas and Pseudomonas) that work together to consume polyethelene plastic at record rates. The experiment yielded a culture of the two that rendered plastic bags 43% decomposed after six weeks-the only outputs being water and an infinitesimal amount of carbon dioxide. Thankfully, the method is inexpensive, energy efficient, and easily scalable for industrial applications. “All you need is a fermenter . . . your growth medium, your microbes and your plastic bags,” stated the young innovator. Thank goodness for the imagination and inquiry!


The Record

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plastic beach junk art: fran crowe

Plastic trash from Suffolk beaches exhibited by artist Fran Crowe at A Fly in the Face. She vowed to save one square mile of ocean for a year by collecting 46000 pieces of litter walking on the beaches near her home. Every time she went out, she took carrier bags and picked up all the litter she could carry. Crowe raised nearly $2000 for the Marine Conservation Society through sponsorship and sale of her unique seaside ‘souvenirs’. She encourages people to join the Marine Conservation Society's Coastal Challenge or do a local river or beach clean-up, such as Beachwatch.

In one year Crowe walked over 200kms and carried away nearly a third of a ton of plastic trash.

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