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Henderson Expedition: The World’s Most Polluted Protected Island Gets Rid of 9 Tons of Plastic Waste
A UNESCO World Heritage Site
Known As The Most Polluted Place On Earth
A 2015 analysis (published in 2017) revealed that in South Polynesia, on one of the four islands of the Pitcairn archipelago, Henderson Island, more than 8 tons of plastic washed up on its beaches: “the highest density of plastic debris ever recorded in the world”.
The 38 km² island has over 38 million pieces of plastic on its shores. Conservative estimates suggest that 3,500 to 13,500 new plastic items wash up on Henderson every day.
The beach on the eastern side of the island, 2 km long, is polluted by 30 million pieces of plastic waste.
An Impossible Cleanup
The First Attempt in 2019
In 2019, an expedition attempted to clean up this isolated sanctuary. 6 tons of garbage were collected on the eastern beach of the island.
Unfortunately, blocked by waves breaking on the coral reef that protects the island, the team was unable to remove the big bags filled with waste and was forced to leave them on the island.
Crossing The Coral Reef
The major challenge in removing the waste from Henderson Island is therefore to cross the coral reef without damaging it. A difficult step because of the rocks and waves blocking access to the beach. Therefore, extracting the waste using converntional mean is impossible and requires inventing new solutions that can be replicated in other polluted areas that are difficult to access.
5 years after this unsuccessful attempt, Plastic Odyssey decided to tackle this impossible mission.
Making the impossible possible
A Challenge Taken Up By Plastic Odyssey
After months of preparation, the Plastic Odyssey teams arrived on Henderson Island on February 12, 2024 and succeeded, thanks to innovative low-tech solutions, in cleaning up the beach designated as the most polluted in the world.
The plastic waste was recycled and transformed into street furniture for the neighboring island of Pitcairn.
Low-Tech Solutions
To solve the problem of waste extraction without damaging the coral reef, several innovative systems have been used:
- The raft: When the weather is favorable, a raft is used to transport the big-bags to the ship.
- Le parasail: When the waves are too strong, an ascending parasail system evacuates the waste above the water.
Henderson Island Expedition Results
7 days and 25 people mobilized to clean up, evacuate and recycle waste
6 tons of plastic waste from 2019, confined in big bags above the high tide line, were successfully evacuated.
The beach was cleaned of new garbage that accumulated since 2019. An additional 3 tons were collected and disposed of bringing the total mass of waste disposed of to over 9 tons.
The recycling of plastics into useful objects was carried out with Pitcairn residents, using on-board machinery aboard the Plastic Odyssey floating laboratory.
Scientific data have been collected to better understand the impact of plastic pollution.
To find out more about the Henderson Expedition 2024, here are a few useful links:
Resources:
- the platform dedicated to this mission: henderson.plasticodyssey.org
- a press kit with everything you need to communicate
- the press file dedicated to this mission on Henderson
Contacts:
Photo-reports, video content or interview requests should be sent to: press@plasticodyssey.org
Partnerships:
partnerships@plasticodyssey.org