The unique PET canoe starts its Danube odyssey on July 5th, 2019. The canoe was constructed by Tomáš Ščepka from the PET bottles thrown away in the forests surrounding Bratislava municipality. The NATUR-PACK team became an active component of this project during the early spring when the PET bottles were collected. We will document the whole project and continuously publish a series of video-reportages.
The waterman of courage who is trying to point out the issues of waste presence in the nature will face a difficult task nowadays: to sail down the entire Slovak segment of the Danube river by using relatively unstable boat constructed from app. 250 PET bottles. Especially PET bottles represent the frequent type of plastic waste regularly detected in the natural ecosystems where they persist for decades or even centuries – despite the fact that PET bottles are made from readily recyclable material with broad possibilities of reuse.
After the symbolical descending of the Slovak segment of the Danube river the PET canoe will be transferred to the company General Plastic for recycling.
The PET CANOE project is aimed at pointing out of the waste dumping into the nature. The watermen presented their responsible relationship to the nature and their good will to present not only actions helping to clean-up the Danube river branches, but also such feats of courage.
Wee keep our fingers crossed and we wish to Tomáš Ščepka a successful journey that will be carefully followed by us: a documentary video-film will be produced as one of the project outputs that will be prepared by the beginning movie maker Marek Brinzík Jr. (ÚAT) and the well-known professional natural film producer Branislav Molnár. The public has a reason to look forward to these project outputs!
PET CANOE - sail - day 1.
Shortly after 10:00 a.m. the PET canoe and the accompanying canoe successfully departed from the rivers Morava and Danube confluence beneath the Devín castle. In the city district Karlova Ves an additional accompanying boat joined the group. After a short break at he Danube river dam in Čunovo the accompanying team exchanged. The whole group succeeded to sail 54 river kilometers till evening (the river section Devín - Dunaremete).
PET CANOE - sail - day 2.
Between 9:30 a.m. and app. 20:00 p.m. the PET canoe team succeeded to sail down to the island Velkolélsky ostrov (section Dunaremete - Zlatná na Ostrove). After more and more demanding paddling of the PET canoe (high resistance of bottles) resulting from the slower Danube water flow the team sailed down 46 river kilometers. PET canoe sailed 100 river kilometers after the first two days.
PET CANOE - sail - day 3.
A day-long journey resulted in overcoming of additional 35 river kilometers, and the required efforts are steadily increasing due to the reduced water flow of the Danube river. The resting section of 35 river kilometers until the sail target will certainly not be easier. Tomáš Ščepka and his supporting watermen-filming team will stay overnight on the island nearby the village Moča.
PET CANOE - sail - day 4.
The teams of the PET canoe and the accompanying canoe with the film group successfully terminated the fourth day by sailing down along the entire Slovak segment of the Danube river and they finished the journey - more than 172 river kilometers - in the territory of the Hungarian border municipality Szob. A strong wind helped during the final sailing stage to overcome the last kilometers without extreme efforts needed during the preceding day. The first phase of the PET canoe mission was successfully finalized. We will keep you informed about the following activities continuously.
July 4th, 2019, updated on July 9th, 2019
