Lessons of waste, redemption on the Plastiki

Next month, a yacht built entirely from reclaimed PET plastic bottles will set sail on an 11,000-mile voyage from San Francisco to Australia. We've written about the Plastiki before, and this week USA Today has a fascinating article about the high-profile trans-Pacific voyage.

Of course, crossing the Pacific is a secondary goal of eco-adventurer David de Rothschild and the crew of the Plastiki. The real point of this voyage to raise awareness about plastic waste and to force a sea change in the way consumers and manufacturers deal with such waste.

The Plastiki's voyage, which will be chronicled online by the crew and which and is already garnering worldwide media attention, will focus attention on one of the most damning environmental threats: how plastic is choking the planet. The Plastiki's message is one of reduce, reuse and recycle. It takes solid aim at the throwaway nature of our society.

Their point: If the world continues to create 260 million tons of plastic products each year, it's critical to find ways to reuse the non-biodegradable material.

The vessel itself is a clever example of how plastic can be reused. At the same time, the ship is a study in excess; thousands of plastic bottles comprise the pontoons that will keep the Plastiki afloat. And in that imagery, we have cautionary tale of how many plastic bottles are needlessly produced and consumed every year. And then there is the recycling message. The Plastiki will sail through the Pacific's Great Garbage Patch, "a massive, floating plastic junkyard in the middle of the ocean that is the direct result of mankind's polluting ways," as USA Today describes it.

We'll be watching along with the world, as the Plastiki undertakes it three-month voyage/environmental mission. Many eyes will be on the strange-looking boat. But in this post "Balloon Boy" climate, many people may view de Rothschild's adventure as a nothing more than an attention-grabbing, publicity stunt when really they should be heeding his message:

[Said] Jo Royle, who signed on to skipper Plastiki after a sailing trip through Antarctica revealed garbage in that icy paradise: "David can help people see we're all environmentalists and should make do with less."

Royle has just nailed Plastiki's mission. Much like [Thor] Heyerdahl's bold Kon-Tiki voyage made people rethink historical tenets, so de Rothschild has a chance to capture hearts and headlines with his crusade to reassess the way we deal with plastic waste.

"Our boat is just one giant floating water bottle," he says.

This simple image, de Rothschild adds, could be enough to shift people's attitudes toward recycling and the environment.

3 R Friday at Over Coffee

We love 3 R Friday at the blog Over Coffee because it offers practical tips for easily incorporating the 3 Rs - reduce, reuse and recycle - into your life.

Here's are a few recent easy tips to help you "darken your shade of green:"

Reduce: Reduce the number of plastic bags that are used during trips to pumpkin patches by taking a washable, reusable bag with you.
(I know that pumpkin patch field trip time is over but maybe we can all remember this one for next year)

Reuse: Reuse glass jars for Thanksgiving left-overs.
(This way you don't have to fret about your guest not bringing back your Tupperware containers)

Recycle: Whenever possible, purchase items made from recycled materials.
(Paper towels, tooth brushes, tissue, wrapping paper, reusable bags, boxes. The list can go on and on and on)

More water bottles recycled in 2008, but drinking bottled water is still a bad idea

The International Bottled Water Association issued a press release this week reporting that recycling rates for half liter plastic water bottles rose from 23.4 percent to 30.9 percent in 2008, according to two new studies by the National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR): the 2008 Post Consumer PET Bottle Bale Composition Analysis and 2008 Report on PET Water Bottle Recycling.

“This big improvement in bottled water container recycling over the 30% mark, while encouraging, reminds us that still more needs to be done,” Association spokesman Tom Lauria
said in a press release.

We couldn't agree more.

While we're pleased that American consumers are more aggressively recycling bottled water containers, we'd like to see them trash bottled water all together. Recycling is the only option for dealing with the glut of single-serving water bottles already sitting on store shelves, in vending machines and in your refrigerators.

But let's not forget the other spokes of the three Rs - reduce, reuse and recycle.

Recycling was the way most of us are introduced to the green mindset. And it's a great way to deal with an existing waste problem. But individually and as citizens of the world, we need to put more emphasis on the other Rs - reducing and reusing. There's no reason to buy water in individual bottle servings when there are other equally convenient and affordable sources of water. And when we buy packaged goods, we need to seek out those in reusable and renewable packaging.

As consumers, we can speak very loudly with our dollars. If we don't spend money on one-time-use products and packaging, companies will stop offering them for sale and stop consuming precious resources to make them.

Photo by orphanjanes, licensed under Creative Commons