Author: Bluebird Surf

I must be getting old since I’m blogging about vacuum cleaners, but bare with me on this…there is relevance.  Check out Electrolux taking a stab at raising awareness for the massive amounts of plastic waste floating in our oceans.  From the Pacific Garbage Patch, which is about the size of Texas, to locations in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans as well as the Mediterranean, Baltic and North seas.  Albatrosses and other sea birds die from malnutrition because their bellies get full with this stuff and they can’t absorb enough nutrients.  Whales, seals, sharks, dolphins, turtles get snagged and trapped in leftover fishing gear…it’s really horrible.

Volunteers were sent out to collect bits of floating plastic, from bottles and buckets, styrofoam, and abandoned fishing gear from the oceans and seas mentioned above.

The pieces were then used to create various models that will be auctioned off to raise awareness.

These won’t be available for the masses and will never be made into full production models.  I was kind of hoping when I read this initially that there were efforts being made on a large scale to start removing and reusing this waste.

A small effort to get people aware of the problems plastic consumption and waste can cause and will perhaps get us thinking of creative ways to recycle and live more simply in the first place.  Every time you’re about to buy something plastic, consider whether or not there is an alternative, since it will be around a long long time.

You can read about the models here featured in FastCompany.