THE PLASTIKI

Paragraph #1: The Plastiki may look like any of the other boats or yachts in the harbour in Sydney. It is eighteen metres long, seven metres wide and it weighs about twelve thousand kilogrammes. It carries a crew of six people. But, as you go closer to the Plastiki you notice a big difference. It is made of twelve thousand five hundred reclaimed plastic bottles.

Paragraph #2: One day, the environmentalist David De Rothschild was reading some information about all the plastic in the seas and oceans. He couldn’t believe what he was reading. For example, humans throw away four out of every five plastic bottles they use and plastic rubbish causes about eighty per cent of the pollution in the sea. Soon afterwards, Rothschild decided he wanted to help the fight against pollution in the sea. To create publicity for the problem, he started building a boat made of plastic bottles.

Paragraph #3: As well as building the boat with recycled plastic, it was important for him to make the boat environmentally-friendly and userfriendly. The boat uses renewable energy sources like wind power and solar energy. The crew can make meals with vegetables from the small garden at the back of the boat. They can take a break from work and get some exercise by using the special exercise bicycle. The energy from the bike produces power for the boat’s computers. And if anyone needs to take a shower, the boat’s shower uses saltwater from the sea.