To make a statement about the massive amount of trash in the oceans, two environmental researchers took a stand by setting sail from California to Hawaii in a boat made of garbage.
Floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, there’s a land mass twice as large as Texas.
If you’re imagining a bigger, better version of Hawaii - well, picture the exact opposite. The mass is made of huge piles of human-created garbage, such as plastic bags and bottles, which drift out to sea and clump together to form the now-famous structure that’s been dubbed, “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” The huge trash heap, located somewhere between San Francisco and Hawaii, contains more than 3.5 million tons of trash.
Earlier this year, two researchers, Marcus Eriksen and Joel Paschal, went on a research trip in the Pacific Ocean, and got a firsthand look at the Garbage Patch. They were disgusted by the amount of garbage they saw floating around, and wanted to make a statement to show what humans were doing to the oceans - so they built themselves a boat made of trash.
Their ship, known as The Junk, is made from 15,000 plastic bottles and the cockpit of a Cessna 310 airplane. Last week, the two activists departed from California for Hawaii on their homemade boat, and are regularly updating followers through their blog. The journey is a way for the pair to call attention to the (literally) massive problem of ocean litter, and to gain the federal government’s attention.
“Yes, we are risking our lives, but the issue of petroleum-based plastic and our national dependence on petroleum, warrant urgent action,” wrote Eriksen on their blog. Here’s hoping their Junk can help the rest of us keep the water clean.