300 millions tons of plastic is produced each year. Over 8 million tons ends up in our oceans. This June, Icebreaker is raising awareness of plastic pollution by taking consumers on a journey across the Pacific Ocean. We also know, microfibers make up 85-percent of human-made debris on shorelines around the globe. Washing synthetic clothing releases up to 700,000 plastic microfibers per full load. There are now even traces of plastic microfibers in everything from fish to German draft beers. What was out of sight and out of mind for many people, is no longer out of site and out of mind. It’s cycled back. This vast ocean wilderness has a major lesson to share. The most sobering fact of all is 100-percent of plastic produced on land, including the plastic microfibers in clothing was once owned by us. It’s time to take the responsibility back and put our name to change.
BEN LECOMTE, VORTEX, ICEBREAKER, MICRO PLASTICS, HAWAII
To support research into this pollution and to educate consumers on the choices they can make to reduce the amount of plastic in the environment, Icebreaker is partnering with long-distance swimmer and ocean advocate Ben Lecomte, pictured right, on a unique mission. Ben will swim 300 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean over the three months from June to September, to represent the 300 million tons of plastic produced in the world each year. He will be swimming through the Vortex, commonly know as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a conglomeration of floating plastic waste, from large debris to plastic bags to microscopic fibers.
To tie in with Ben’s swim and in a bold move to help reduce future plastic waste polluting the environment, Icebreaker is launching a pledge to prevent 300 million pieces of plastic from being produced.
People can follow the challenge and get involved in the following ways:
- Follow Ben’s progress at movetonatural.com
- To celebrate their arrival in September, buy the limited-edition icebreaker Vortex Swim T-shirt, with money donated from each sale going to support research into plastic pollution in the Pacific Ocean.
- Join the support crew on the ground. Be a Vortex ambassador, take on the role of an icebreaker ‘natural progressive’, and share your message of support for the swim and spreading the word about research into plastic pollution through #thevortexswim #movetonatural
Ben is passionate about campaigning for changes in the way people consume and dispose of plastics. Having swum through vast collections of plastic debris on previous swims, and seen their build-up on beaches, he wants to be part of the move to change the current problem and help educate people on natural alternatives.
Said Ben: “Microfibers are a growing problem because we don’t see them, but we now know that they are everywhere – we even find microfibers in tap water, and we have very little knowledge of what impact they have on the human body. But we know the cause of it – mostly the clothes that we wash. So anything that can provide a solution to that – alternatives to synthetics, such as natural fabric – is the way to go.”
He said we all need to make changes, but to do that we need to understand the problem. “Plastic originates on land, and is generated from human use, but it ends up in the ocean. Plastic is very convenient but as soon as we change our behavior and try to not use plastic, and make that a commitment, then I think we’ll see less plastic in the ocean.”
“I want people to understand that the solution is in everybody’s hands. We can make better choices as far as not using single-use plastic, as far as the type of clothing that we buy, and hopefully the more people who understand it, the more people who can make the right choice.”
Additional Information
- The Vortex Swim sets sail from Hawaii on June 8, 2019, World Ocean Day, and arrives in California in the first week of September 2019.
- The Icebreaker Vortex Crew T-shirt is available on Icebreaker.com, Icebreaker TouchLabs and key retailers.
- The Vortex Swim is named after the circular area of water, or vortex, that moves around the North Pacific Ocean, where four major currents trap water – and plastic pollution – into an encircled area.
- Ben and the Vortex Team will be the first expedition to collect a unified high-definition sampling of plastic pollution across the Pacific Ocean, from Japan to California.
Ben’s Sink or Swim boat crew will collect samples each day for a range of scientific organizations to contribute to data on plastic pollution in the ocean. This will include placing trackers on large items of debris to follow their movement on the ocean’s currents, observing marine life – from microorganisms to large pelagic animals – as they interact with the plastic debris, and filtering for microfiber samples to learn more about this type of pollution that is undetectable to the human eye but has the potential to negatively impact the health of humans and the environment. Because the support vessel is sailing at the pace of a swimmer, it can collect samples otherwise out of reach to scientists on regular ocean crossings.
ABOUT BEN LECOMTE
Ben Lecomte was the first person to swim across the Atlantic Ocean without a kickboard in 1998 to support cancer research in memory of his late father. He was the first person to attempt a stage swim across the Pacific Ocean in 2018 to raise awareness of plastic pollution and is now attempting a 300 nautical mile swim through the highest concentration of ocean plastic pollution.
ABOUT SINK OR SWIM
Sink or Swim is an NGO started by long-distance swimmer Ben Lecomte, together with crew members from his 2018 expedition across the Pacific Ocean. Struck by the amount of debris and micro-plastics found during their six-month expedition, the crew were inspired to do more to help the state of our oceans and encourage people to say no to single-use plastic.
