What has 12,500 plastic bottles worth of plastic and just set sail from San Francisco to Sydney, Australia? Answer: The Plastiki, a 60-foot catamaran constructed almost entirely from recycled materials.
Always delivering on our commitment of being green, HP has been contributing and showing its support of the Plastiki expedition since its launch. As you may recall, I was there to hear David de Rothschild speak at the Plastiki launch event last June. At the time, David spoke of the challenges that he and his foundation, Adventure Ecology, faced in trying to design and build a craft that is both rigid enough for the high seas and still recyclable once its voyage is over.
Those challenges were met and overcome, and the Plastiki, a 60-foot catamaran made from 12,500 reclaimed bottles and fully recyclable plastic, is setting sail today on its journey from San Francisco to Sydney. David, along with his crew consisting of skipper Jo Royle, co-skipper David Thomson, Josian Heyerdahl and Olav Heyerdahl, will embark from Cavallo Point today on their three month journey to Sydney. (Eagle-eyed readers may notice that the gent second from the left is San Francisco mayor, Gavin Newsom. While at the unveiling and showing his support, he will remain here on land fulfilling his mayoral duties!)
Their mission over the next three months is not only to raise awareness that waste product is a fundamental design flaw, but to showcase and prove that waste product can be a resource. With 15 billion pounds of plastic being produced every year in the U.S., and only 1 billion pounds of it being recycled, the Plastika will be an example of how we can rethink and reuse our material waste and positively affect the way we look at our plastic usage throughout its lifecycle.
In its main mission, though, the Plastika will be setting its course to hit environmentally sensitive areas across the sea including the Eastern Garbage Patch, also known as the Pacific Gyre, and will document and record data demonstrating the impact that our waste and pollution are having on the environment. To record and capture all the experiences and data from the trip, HP, I am very proud to say, has equipped the Plastika with our energy efficient notebooks, media drives and smartphones to assist the crew in their documentation and day-to-day experiences of the voyage.
The full list of our products and what they will be used for during the voyage is below, but you can also head down to Pier 45 in San Francisco and visit the HP sponsored Plastiki Mission Control Center, where visitors can interact with the crew via web messages, track their progress through animated maps, or view exhibits of the boat building process.
HP would like to extend a very hearty bon voyage to the David and the crew upon the Plastiki!
And helping the the crew along are these HP products...
HP EliteBook 2530p notebook is a durable magnesium-alloy cased PC with battery-efficient designs. The PC will support computing needs, including navigation, communication, reading and recording data, and video editing. More than 90 percent of each HP EliteBook PC, by weight, is recoverable or recyclable.
HP ProBook 5310m notebook is a thin and stylish Energy Star qualified PC that uses minimal power, which is critical on the boat. It also exemplifies HP’s commitment to the environment and eliminating all uses of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in its computing products.
HP Pocket Media and HP Personal Media drives will be used for storing preloaded nautical charts, tactical software and maps. Pictures and video of the expedition will be saved to the HP Personal Media drive for the crew to share with a global audience via its website. Easy and safe back-up is critical for capturing data from the voyage.
HP iPAQ 910C Smartphone will provide reliable connectivity supporting short- and long-distance communications, including text, voice and data transfer. Each crew member will use the keyboard and camera to capture their personal stories while at sea.
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