A boat made from 12,500 plastic bottles will leave New Caledonia for Sydney, Australia this week on the final leg of a voyage across the Pacific to raise environmental awareness.
Organisers say the "Plastiki" has already sailed 12,860 kilometres in 108 days from San Francisco to the French Pacific territory, via the Line Islands and Samoa.
The voyage, to highlight the dangers of plastic pollution, over-fishing and climate change to the world's oceans, is expected to start its last and most challenging leg today, depending on the weather.
British adventurer and ecologist David de Rothschild dreamed up the idea of a fully recyclable performing vessel after reading a United Nations report on ocean ecosystems.
