We are delighted to see that the theme of this year’s Global Recycling Day (18th March), organized by the Global Recycling Foundation, is #RecyclingHeroes.
It aims to recognize the people, places and activities that showcase what an important role recycling plays in contributing to an environmentally stable planet and a greener future which will benefit all.
It gives us an opportunity to salute the invaluable work that the team at Plastic Odyssey are doing on its three-year global mission to discover, champion and share solutions to help overcome the plastic waste crisis – both on land and in our seas.
The Plastic Odyssey Project is one that Lubmarine is proud to support - as an official lubrication solutions supplier since 2021 – helping by providing both our high-performance lubricants and our latest suite of ground-breaking global digital monitoring services, helping their journey across three continents.
In its latest mission the Plastic Odyssey team worked to clean up what has been named the “Most Polluted Protected Island” in the World – Henderson Island – part of the four Islands of the Pitcairn archipelago in South Polynesia. The Island has the highest density of plastic debris ever recorded in the world with over 8 tonnes washed up on its shores.
Following months of planning, the Plastic Odyssey team arrived on a 2km long beach on Henderson’s Eastern side, polluted by 30 million pieces of plastic waste.
The major challenge in removing the waste from Henderson Island is crossing the coral reef in front of the beach without damaging it. A difficult step because of the rocks and waves blocking access to the beach. Extracting the waste using conventional means was impossible requiring the Plastic Odyssey team to create new solutions that can be replicated in other polluted areas that are difficult to access.
These solutions included:
The raft: When the weather was favourable, a raft was used to transport large bags of plastic waste to the ship.
The parasail: When the waves were too strong, an ascending parasail system took the waste away by carrying it above the water.
After seven days, three tonnes of plastic waste were removed from the beach before being recycled and transformed into street furniture for the neighbouring island of Pitcairn.
The recycling of plastics was carried out with Pitcairn residents, using on-board machinery aboard the Plastic Odyssey floating laboratory. Alongside the recycling, scientific data was collected to better understand the impact of plastic pollution.
An amazing achievement from Plastic Odyssey and without doubt worthy of the title #RECYCLINGHEROES
To find out more about the team’s mission on Henderson Island visit: https://plasticodyssey.org/en/2024-henderson-island-expedition-completed/