Water Is Everything The Daily Drop Meet The 5 Gyres Institute

Meet The 5 Gyres Institute

March 22, 2018

Everything But Water is excited to work with The 5 Gyres Institute, an organization committed to ending the global health crisis of plastic pollution in our seas. The California-based group was started in 2009 by husband-and-wife team Dr. Marcus Eriksen and Anna Cummins after the two became engaged on a sailing expedition going from Hawaii to Los Angeles. The pair saw how plastic trash was affecting marine life, including the microbeads that were being used in beauty products, and decided to dedicate their lives and careers to fixing the problem.

Dr. Eriksen caused a sensation when he used 15,000 plastic water bottles and an airplane fuselage to build the "Junk Raft," which he sailed from California to Hawaii to raise awareness about plastic pollution in the oceans. The journey has been captured in a book and documentary that will be screened at the Water is Everything event with 1 Hotel South Beach this April.

5 Gyres was also instrumental in getting President Obama to sign the Microbead-Free Waters Act in 2015, eliminating the use of microbeads in beauty products.

As part of this ongoing partnership, Everything But Water will help raise awareness of the issues at hand, participate in clean-up and ocean trawl activities, sponsor additional events and donate a portion of sales from specific pieces. For their 18th expedition, 5 Gyres will sail to Bali to study the impact of plastic pollution on land and the marine environment. The trip will be sponsored in part by Everything But Water.