Load of garbage: David de Rothschild (front right), the skipper of the Plastiki, a boat made out of 12,500 recycled plastic bottles, shakes hands with Ian Kiernan, the founder and chairman of Clean Up Australia and Clean Up the World, in Sydney, on Monday. The Plastiki arrived in Sydney four months after it set out from San Francisco on a journey across the Pacific Ocean meant to raise awareness about the perils of plastic waste.
A catamaran made out of plastic bottles and captained by an heir to a banking dynasty has arrived at Sydney's Darling Harbour.
The Plastiki is made from 12,500 PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles and sailed through the Heads earlier this morning, docking at Darling Harbour where some curious Sydney- siders gathered to watch its arrival.
The leader of the voyage, David de Rothschild of the banking dynasty, has sailed about 8,000 nautical miles from San Francisco to Sydney to make a point about the way plastic is used.
Speaking after the yacht docked, he said people need to start reducing the amount of plastic waste in the world's oceans.
"You go a couple of hundred miles off the coast, and nobody is claiming responsibility," he said.
"Which allows people just to do what they want, and allows them to abuse the ocean's depth, and its so-called scale. To literally take all of our fish resources or to dump plastic indiscriminately."
He says he's discussed legislation on the issue with Sydney's Lord Mayor Clover Moore.
"The Plastiki is literally a metaphorical message in a bottle about beating waste and reducing our human fingerprints on our natural environment," he said.
The boat's arrival was delayed slightly by storms off the Queensland coast last week.
It will be on display at the Australian National Maritime Museum for the next month.
heir to banking dynasty ?
that family is richer than the rest of the world combined !
wealth conservatively estimated at over USD100 Trillion in the 1980's.........