In the summer of 2010, de Rothschild launched the “Plastiki,” a 60-foot catamaran was built from approx. 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles and a unique recyclable technology called Seretex. Seretex, which was developed by de Rothschild and his team, was meant to reuse PET in a novel way, finding new uses for a waste product. The Plastiki and its crew sailed over 8,000 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco to Sydney. Along with the Plastiki de Rothschild launched a platform for community interaction and sharing stories called "Myoo" (the name comes from the pronunciation of "community"). The Plastiki was named one of 2010's fifty best inventions] by Time Magazine.The Plastiki is named after the Kon-Tiki, a raft used by Pacific explorer Thor Heyerdahl.
The construction of the ship is notable not only for its use of recycled plastic bottles as a primary building material, but also using reclaimed and environmentally friendly materials throughout. In April, 2007 he told Good Morning America: "Every part of the boat, even down to the glue we used to stick the boat together, is a glue we made and had to engineer specifically for this project. It's made of cashew nuts and sugar….every part of the boat - from the interior with reclaimed materials, reclaimed fabric, is all trying to do our best and showcasing there are a lot of solutions out there,".
In 2009 The New Yorker's Jon Colapinto, wrote about the Plastiki, comparing its creator, de Rothschild, to adventurers like Sir Richard Francis Burton and Sebastian Snow.
Read more about this topic: David Mayer De Rothschild