Did you know that our oceans are covered with vast floating garbage islands the size of Florida? These massive chunks of garbage are apparently made up of 90% plastic, which is unfortunate, because plastic takes a long time to go anywhere.
To draw attention to this problem, Jan Kara and Jakub Bures decided to build a boat out of discarded water bottles and sail for 530 miles. Here’s some highlights of their odd adventure.
Meet the builders
Jakub Bures and Honza Kara, the masterminds behind the bottle boat
Prepping the bottles
Attaching the bottles together was no easy feat. They were also filled with dry ice to increase buoyancy.
Bottle Collection
It took more than 50,000 empty bottles to create their craft.
It was a frame-up
A nice sturdy frame to hold the whole thing together.
Stop, rudder time
Without a rudder, you've got no direction.
Pedal power
The main propulsion of the boat will come from old bike frames attached to paddles.
Skeleton
If it looks elaborate, it's because it needs to be. They plan to sail the plastic bottle boat down the Elbe River from Nymburk in the Czech Republic, to the city of Hamburg, Germany.
Starting to take shape
I guess that kind of looks like a boat...
She's seaworthy
It actually floats!
Aerial view
It looks pretty good from up here!
View from the cabin
Even the cabin is made of plastic bottles.
Water break
I guess when he's done drinking, that could be a valuable replacement part.
Waiting for the lock
In total they plan to travel 530 miles all told.
Hard to port
The rudder system seems to be working perfectly.
Don't wait up
They expect the journey to take at least a month if not longer.
Progress map
They will be travelling from Prague to Hamburg. It looks co close on the map!
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