HONOLULU – There's a story behind the blue, white and green plastic (1) covers the surface of the Pacific Ocean vacuum cleaner. They're tiny bits of plastic (2) were collected from one of Hawaii's dirtiest beaches, Kahuku, (3) waves dump trash from the Pacific all day long.

The machine (4) is made by Electrolux AB is fully functional and can suck up dirt from a rug like any other vacuum. But the company said it wants the device to serve as an object (5) provokes a conversation about the large volumes of plastic trash (6) are polluting the world's oceans.

The Stockholm-based company has also made four other vacuums, each from plastic trash (7) was collected in the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean, North and Baltic seas. None of the five are for commercial sale.

Cecilia Nord, vice president for sustainability and environmental affairs at Electrolux's floor care and small appliances division, said many groups are doing their best to clean the ocean and beaches of plastic.

But the problem keeps growing because people continue to consume more plastic without recycling it afterward, she said.

"We — as a big manufacturer with a global reach — can start a debate and hopefully can contribute to addressing the root cause," Nord said.

Electrolux received its Pacific Ocean plastic from a Hawaii-based volunteer group (8) cleans up Kahuku beach once a week. The remote shoreline is one of Oahu's dirtiest, in part because current flows tend to deposit trash on that side of the island.

"We can be there on any day and see it coming in on each wave," said Suzanne Frazer, president and co-founder of Beach Environmental Awareness Campaign Hawaii.

Garbage also quickly accumulates at Kahuku because the beach is behind two private properties and can't be easily visited by beachgoers (9) pick up trash on Hawaii's more populated shorelines every day.

Plastic breaks down into smaller pieces slowly over time but doesn't ever completely disappear. In the ocean, currents carry the small bits to areas (10) massive gyres of plastic garbage have formed.

Source:  McAvoy, Audrey. “Hawaii beach garbage recycled as vacuum cleaner”  Retrieved from

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20101027/ap_tr_ge/us_travel_brief_ocean_plastic_vacuum 

on October 29, 2010

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