The Plastic Odyssey with its brand new paint, Tuesday March 9 in Dunkirk.

-

Nicolas Montard

  • The

    Plastic Odyssey

    , a former oceanographic research vessel, is about to preach good plastic recycling solutions and practices to the planet.

  • The ship is currently under construction at a shipyard in Dunkirk and was put back afloat on Tuesday.

  • She will set sail in June for a three-year trip.

A new step has just been taken by the

Plastic Odyssey team

in Dunkirk, in the North.

The ship, which specializes in recycling plastic waste collected in ports, left its dry dock on Tuesday to be refloated.

She is due to set sail in June for a three-year round-the-world trip, consisting of thirty stopovers: Dakar (Senegal), Tunis (Tunisia) Bélem (Brazil), Lima (Peru), Nha-Trang (Vietnam), Phuket (Thailand) ), etc.

These are all areas particularly sensitive to pollution of the plastic seas.

Because the

Plastic Odyssey

is a real floating laboratory which "aims to democratize recycling solutions with simple, inexpensive and easily reproducible processes", explains Simon Bernard, the young 29-year-old co-founder of the

Plastic Odyssey

exploration

.

On board the boat, around ten on-board machines (sorter, crusher, extruder, hydraulic press) are open source, that is to say without patent, and allow plastic waste to be transformed into pipes, tiles, bricks or even into fuel.

Simon Bernard, one of the co-founders of a project which aims to be the - Nicolas Montard

“We had the project well in mind, as a computer model, but now it is becoming more and more realistic.

And several members of our team had not yet seen the boat: now, it is very concrete, ”said Simon Bernard, who found the ship after six months of work in Dunkirk.

The "Plastic Wikipedia"

During stopovers, the general public as well as entrepreneurs will be able to test processes on the machines before developing them on land, perhaps by creating recycling micro-factories.

Plastic Odyssey's

ambition is to fight against pollution at source by generating job opportunities.

You should know that, every minute, twenty tons of plastics are dumped in the oceans of the planet.

“The idea is to plant a seed locally each time.

These inexpensive machines - a few thousand to tens of thousands of euros - are very easy to manufacture.

We want to become, in a way, the Wikipedia of plastics.

», Emphasizes Simon Bernard.

The workers have until the end of May to complete the site.

- Nicolas Montard

Today, the boilermaking, painting, sheet metal and mechanical work carried out by the Damen shipyard are finished.

The

Plastic Odyssey

has even had a rear axle added to protect future recycling machines.

Visible in June in Dunkirk

However, there is still some work to be done to prepare this former oceanographic research vessel, capable of carrying 21 people.

In particular with the imminent arrival of the famous machines, again in Marseille, headquarters of the Simon Bernard company.

The transformation of the boat into an ambassador for plastic recycling is estimated at one million euros against eight million for the entire project.

Notice to investors: 1.5 to 2 million are still missing before the big departure scheduled for June.

Our pollution file

​

The first stopover will be at… Dunkirk, in a basin accessible to the general public so that Northerners can discover, with their own eyes, this ship which aims to set a milestone in the fight against plastic pollution.

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  • Pollution

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  • Plastic

  • Recycling

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