SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — David de Rothschild is getting ready to sail the Pacific in a homemade boat to encourage people to recycle.
The 31-year-old scion of the British banking family constructed the twin hulls of his 60-ft. catamaran, "Plastiki," from 12,500 plastic bottles filled with dry ice, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The rest of the boat, except for the sails, motor and a few small items, are made of PET, a self-reinforcing hard plastic.
Rothschild built the boat in a shed on a San Francisco waterfront pier, and took it out for a test run Wednesday. He expects to set sail for Australia in early March.
The project is designed to raise awareness about plastic waste, Rothschild told reporters. Most of the world’s plastic bottles end up in landfills, he said, when they could be recycled for human use — like sailing the Pacific, for instance.
