A British environmentalist billionaire is setting off on an ocean adventure across the Pacific ocean in a boat named in homage to the adventurer Thor Heyerdahl’s legendary Kon Tiki expedition.

David De Rothschild is sailing from California to Australia on a brand new boat – the Plastiki – built of recycled plastic bottles to highlight the so-called plastic soup in the North Pacific.

The Pacific garbage patch is created by the circulating currents that have gathered an area of floating plastic waste several hundred miles in diameter.

The voyage will highlight the possibility of re-using plastic with just 10% of the materials in the construction being non-recycled material.

Watch Video of David de Rothschild on building Plastiki here