(Photo Credit: Martin E. Klimek) By Marco R. della Cava, USA TODAY
Green captain: David de Rothschild's catamaran Plastiki, which is under construction in San Francisco, is made of recycled plastic. He and a crew will try to sail next month across the Pacific to Sydney.

SAN FRANCISCO — There's one big problem with Plastiki. Sure, the 60-foot catamaran made entirely out of recycled plastic looks majestic enough propped on a wooden pedestal here inside cavernous Pier 31.

(Image from franklygreen.com) But the boat is too small.

Not for the 11,000-mile voyage due to kick off next month, out the Golden Gate and across the Pacific to Sydney Harbor. But rather too confining for its peripatetic creator, David de Rothschild, the 31-year-old eco-celebrity (and scion of Europe's fabled banking family) whose mission is to forever change the way the world sees polyethylene terephthalate — aka plastic.


GREAT GARBAGE PATCH: Birds and boats in danger in Pacific

"Um, it's going to get pretty tight in there," says the 6-foot-4 adventurer, peering into a crew-of-six living area the size of an SUV. "Three months at sea. Wow."

Normally, three months in the life of de Rothschild finds him ping-ponging across the globe, from a London home to his New Zealand organic farm to this Bay Area headquarters, where for two years he and a couple of dozen workers have been conjuring ways to repurpose everyday plastic into an ocean-going yacht.

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.

Otherwise, some of that trash can wind up bobbing in a spot Plastiki will soon set sail for, weather and sea-trials permitting: the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a borderless swath of floating debris that sprawls across much of the Pacific. It is symbolism at its simplest, a boat made of recycled plastic plying a sea of wasted plastic.

For de Rothschild, the Plastiki Expedition combines adventuring with activism.


(Image from the Guardian)
"I saw what climate change was doing firsthand when I had to be pulled off the ice during a trek across the Arctic in 2006 because there was too much melting," says de Rothschild, a horse jumper turned environmentalist. His lean good looks have enhanced his appeal as host of the Sundance Channel's Eco Trip: The Real Cost of Livingand helped him nab the Hottest Guy in Green title last year from the eco-bloggers at EarthFirst.com.

"But the truth is, few can get emotional about carbon dioxide," he says. "So a light bulb went off for me. It's about waste, yes, but the kind we can touch. The kind that's an eyesore."...MORE...

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