EXXPEDITION:
NORTH PACIFIC

Film, trailer and all photography developed by the incredible documentarian Eleanor Church of Lark Rise Pictures.

THE MISSION

In the summer of 2018, I sailed 3000 nautical miles with a multidisciplinary team of women, from Honolulu, Hawaii to Vancouver, BC. Our mission was to conduct research in the densest accumulation of ocean plastic on the planet, the North Pacific Gyre.

As a packaging designer and environmentalist, my goal is to help raise awareness about this issue and push the industry toward positive solutions. Since returning from the journey, our crew has launched a documentary called XTrillion, due out in late 2021.

I love to share my experience through speaking engagements, to raise awareness about this issue close to my heart. Most recently I was fortunate to mentor at SXSW 2021 and speak on a panel of experts about Designing a Carbon Negative Future at San Francisco Design Week.

THE PROBLEM

Plastic is a material that is meant to survive forever, yet it is used to make disposable items. This is fundamentally a design problem. With only approximately 7% of plastic in the US making it through the recycling process today, it’s time to scale sustainable materials, and develop circular economy solutions for the future.

What we found

Each sample we pulled from the North Pacific Gyre contained more plastic than ever found before, with over 1000 plastic fragments in each tiny sample of the ocean. These fragments are now known to make their way up the food chain, delivering unwanted toxins into the human diet, with still unknown health effects.

THE RESULTS

The samples we collected at sea fueled the research of over a dozen scientists around the globe, whose work is aimed at understanding how the plastic in our environment effects our health and the health of our planet. To learn more about eXXpedition’s mission, and apply to get on a boat yourself, please visit exxpedition.com.