Fishing Boats in South Africa
Someone put a LA Times article about The Plastiki on my desk.
Did you know there is a swirling vortex of plastic in the middle of the ocean? Serious, it is so big someone actually named it the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. You can even Google it! This is not good. They say it may be twice the size of Texas. And there is one in the Atlantic as well! I had no idea.
A few days later while driving down the Pacific Coast Highway I had this vision of a fishing boat hauling up nets filled with plastic bottles instead of fish. I could see the boat harvesting plastic from the Patch, using its big nets to fish old bottles out of the ocean. It was so vivid and all too real.
Naturally this lead to the question, what do you do with a “catch” of old plastic soda bottles? The answer hit me hard! Make them useful and put them back into the sea. There is a certain beauty and poetry to it. You take something bad and turn it into something good. You create a total transformation: plastic trash becomes recycled fabric that becomes a pair of board shorts. And the board shorts? They go back into the sea. It all comes full circle.
When the pieces fell into place I knew that I had to start this company. I can’t escape the vision of the boat hauling up nets full of plastic bottles: it will not let go of me. It is now my responsibility to bring these board shorts to market, to dive into the fray and make a difference.
Enjoy your VinniVooms and wear them with pride. I thank each of you for helping us make this vision come true.
Steve Carcano
Founder, Father, Beach and Ocean Advocate