Why?
The Plastic Journey is an expedition that will help to rid the world of plastic pollution. Plastic pollution is arguably one of the most challenging forms of pollution that we are faced with today. Millions of tonnes are discarded every year which end up in all corners of the globe including Mount Everest and Antarctica. Wildlife often become entangled in this plastic debris reducing their ability to forage or hunt for food, evade predators and therefore inevitably death. Humans are also directly affected. When the plastic breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces, becoming microplastics, it is eaten by small animals after which it makes its way up the food chain to humans. The long term effects of microplastic ingestion are not yet known.
How
Below is an overview of the expedition including the stages that make it up. We will keep this up to date as much as possible, however for a more detailed description of our progress visit our blog page here.
- Stage 1
On August 15th we set off from the North Cape in Norway, mainland Europe’s most northerly point and cycled south to Portimao in Portugal. We covered a total of 3244.1 miles and collected 40.3kg of rubbish which was deposited in recycle bins. We also achieved a total ascent of 129752ft over the 75 days.
- Stage 2
We rowed an ocean rowing boat from Portimao to Aricefe, Lanzarote. The row took us a total of 26 days during which we were forced to spend 9 days on a sea anchor due to bad weather. We also had several mechanical issues which delayed our progress. We did not collect any discarded plastic but did see dolphins, turtles and a beluga whale.
- Stage 3
We joined a 35ft yacht as the crew to help sail it across the Atlantic Ocean from Tenerife in the Canary Islands to Grenada in the Caribbean. The total distance sailed was 2885nm during which we only witnessed several pieces of rubbish, all of which were out of reach therefore could not be collected. We did however see pods of dolphins and minke whales.
- Stage 4
Here we decided to take a break for a few weeks in the sunshine. While the captain took his yacht across the Caribbean Sea towards the Panama Canal we flew to the Grand Bahama Island for a rest and completed our Open Water Scuba Diving course. We are now qualified open water divers.
- Stage 5
TBC.
We will collect as much discarded plastic as possible throughout all stages. As we are using as much human power as possible throughout the expedition, our carbon footprint will alsobe low.
We are supplying all our own equipment, including an ocean rowing boat. We are however looking for help with the cost of our food and maybe a monthly shower during the trip. Any extra money raised will be donated to a charity who actively clean up pollution. If you would like to help fuel us on our journey, click here.
The Plastic Journey 